No Arabic abstract
The study of neutron stars is a topic of central interest in the investigation of the properties of strongly compressed hadronic matter. Whereas in heavy-ion collisions the fireball, created in the collision zone, contains very hot matter, with varying density depending on the beam energy, neutron stars largely sample the region of cold and dense matter with the exception of the very short time period of the existence of the proto-neutron star. Therefore, neutron star physics, in addition to its general importance in astrophysics, is a crucial complement to heavy-ion physics in the study of strongly interacting matter. In the following, model approaches will be introduced to calculate properties of neutron stars that incorporate baryons and quarks. These approaches are also able to describe the state of matter over a wide range of temperatures and densities, which is essential if one wants to connect and correlate star observables and results from heavy-ion collisions. The effect of exotic particles and quark cores on neutron star properties will be considered. In addition to the gross properties of the stars like their masses and radii their expected inner composition is quite sensitive to the models used. The effect of the composition can be studied through the analysis of the cooling curve of the star. In addition, we consider the effect of rotation, as in this case the particle composition of the star can be modified quite drastically.
In this review, I present a brief summary of the impact of nucleon pairing at supra-nuclear densities on the cooling of neutron stars. I also describe how the recent observation of the cooling of the neutron star in the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A may provide us with the first direct evidence for the occurrence of such pairing. It also implies a size of the neutron 3P-F2 energy gap of the order of 0.1 MeV.
We discuss the properties of neutron stars and their modifications due to the occurrence of hyperons and quarks in the core of the star. More specifically, we consider the general problem of exotic particles inside compact stars in light of the observed two-solar mass pulsar. In addition, we investigate neutron star cooling and a possible explanation of the recently measured cooling curve of the neutron star in the supernova remnant Cas A.
We study the axion cooling of neutron stars within the Dine-Fischler-Srednicki-Zhitnitsky (DFSZ) model, which allows for tree level coupling of electrons to the axion {and locks the Peccei-Quinn charges of fermions via an angle parameter}. This extends our previous study [Phys. Rev. D 93, 065044 (2016)] limited to hadronic models of axions. We explore the two-dimensional space of axion parameters within the DFSZ model by comparing the theoretical cooling models with the surface temperatures of a few stars with measured surface temperatures. It is found that axions masses $m_age 0.06$ to 0.12 eV can be excluded by x-ray observations of thermal emission of neutron stars (in particular by those of Cas A), the precise limiting value depending on the angle parameter of the DFSZ model. It is also found that axion emission by electron bremsstrahlung in neutron star crusts is negligible except for the special case where neutron Peccei-Quinn charge is small enough, so that the coupling of neutrons to axions can be neglected.
We construct self-consistent equilibrium sequences of general relativistic, rotating neutron star models. Special emphasis in put on the determination of the maximum rotation frequency of such objects. Recently proposed models for the equation of state of neutron star matter are employed, which are derived by describing the hadronic phase within the many-body Brueckner--Bethe--Goldstone formalism, and the quark matter phase within the MIT bag model using a density dependent bag constant. We find that the rotational frequencies of neutron stars with deconfined quark phases in their cores rival those of absolutely stable, self-bound strange quark matter stars. This finding is of central importance for the interpretation of extremely rapidly rotating pulsars, which are the targets of present pulsar surveys.
Recent developments in the theory of pure neutron matter and experiments concerning the symmetry energy of nuclear matter, coupled with recent measurements of high-mass neutron stars, now allow for relatively tight constraints on the equation of state of dense matter. We review how these constraints are formulated and describe the implications they have for neutron stars and core-collapse supernovae. We also examine thermal properties of dense matter, which are important for supernovae and neutron star mergers, but which cannot be nearly as well constrained at this time by experiment. In addition, we consider the role of the equation of state in medium-energy heavy-ion collisions.