Theoretical Physics Colloquium by Prof. Veronica Dexheimer
This presentation was held live on May 6, 2020 as part of the theoretical physics colloquium series hosted by Prof. Igor Shovkovy at the Arizona State University. The series features high-quality interactive presentations on current advances in theoretical physics by active researchers in the field of theoretical physics.
Abstract for this presentation:
Neutron stars are the most dense objects in our universe that we can directly observed. In their cores, different particles from the ones present in atomic nuclei, protons and neutrons, can exist. These particles are hyperons, that contain non-zero strangeness, and possibly quarks, some of them also strange. In the extreme case that neutron stars merge into a black hole, the density increases even further to possibly more than 10 times the density of atomic nuclei. In addition, the temperature in mergers can be much higher than the one generated in the supernova explosions that create neutron stars, approaching the temperatures generated in heavy-ion collisions. Under these conditions, a large amount of strangeness Ys and, more specifically, quark strangeness Ys-quark can be created. As a consequence, a possible strong phase transition can lead to a post-merger gravitational-wave signal considerably different from the one expected from the inspiral and to an anticipated collapse of the merged object.
