Speaker: Dr. Andrew Steiner, INT & Univ. of Washington

Topic: “Neutron Stars as a Laboratory for Nuclear Physics ”

Time: 2 p.m., Friday, January 24, 2014

Place: P-148 (refreshments will be served at 1:45 in P-145A)

 

Abstract:

A large number of astrophysical phenomena are tightly connected to nuclear physics. Neutron stars, one of the end-products of the collapse of massive stars, have become a novel laboratory for neutron-rich matter. Observations of neutron star radii have only recently become available, and these observations have lead to a constraint on the universal neutron star mass-versus-radius curve. Invturn, this has also provided us with novel constraints on the equation of state of dense matter – probing quantum chromodynamics at high densities which are inaccessible from experiments. This same astronomical data has also provided a constraint on the nature of the so-called “nuclear symmetry energy” which dictates the properties of neutron-rich nuclei. Nuclear astrophysics will continue to flourish in upcoming experimental facilities and with future astronomical observations.