Jirina Stone

Abstract:

The microscopic composition and properties of matter at super-saturation densities have been the subject of intense investigation for decades. The scarcity of experimental and observational data has lead to the necessary reliance on theoretical models. However, there remains great uncertainty in these models, which, of necessity, have to go beyond the over-simple assumption that high density matter consists only of nucleons and leptons. Heavy strange baryons, mesons and quark matter in different forms and phases have to be included to fulfil basic requirements of fundamental laws of physics. In this review the latest developments in construction of the Equation of State (EoS) of high-density matter at zero and finite temperature assuming different composition of the matter are surveyed. Critical comparison of model EoS with available observational data on neutron stars, including gravitational masses, radii and cooling patterns is presented. The effect of changing rotational frequency on the composition of neutron stars during their lifetime is demonstrated. Compatibility of EoS of high-density, low temperature compact objects and low density, high temperature matter created in heavy-ion collisions is discussed. © Copyright owned by the author(s) under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike Licence.

Abstract:

We study the so called hybrid stars, which are hadronic stars that contain a core of deconfined quarks. For this purpose, we make use of an extended version of the SU(3) chiral model. Within this approach, the degrees of freedom change naturally from hadrons (baryon octet) to quarks (u, d, s) as the temperature and/or density increases. At zero temperature we are still able to reproduce massive stars, even with the inclusion of hyperons. © Copyright owned by the author(s) under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike Licence.

Abstract:

The core-collapse supernova phenomenon, one of the most explosive events in the Universe, presents a challenge to theoretical astrophysics. Of the large variety of forms of matter present in core-collapse supernova, we focus on the transitional region between homogeneous (uniform) and inhomogeneous (pasta) phases. A three-dimensional, finite temperature Skyrme-Hartree-Fock (3D-SHF)+BCS calculation yields, for the first time fully self-consistently, the critical density and temperature of both the onset of the pasta in inhomogeneous matter, consisting of neutron-rich heavy nuclei and a free neutron and electron gas, and its dissolution to a homogeneous neutron, proton, and electron liquid. We also identify density regions for different pasta formations between the two limits. We employ four different forms of the Skyrme interaction, SkM*, SLy4, NRAPR, and SQMC700 and find subtle variations in the low density and high density transitions into and out of the pasta phase. One new stable pasta shape has been identified, in addition to the classic ones, on the grid of densities and temperatures used in this work. Our results are critically compared to recent calculations of pasta formation in the quantum molecular dynamics approach and Thomas-Fermi and coexisting phase approximations to relativistic mean-field models. © 2012 American Physical Society.