Internal Constitution of Neutron and Strange Stars

Abstract

In the first of these two lectures I will discuss the rich constitution of neutron stars as a consequence of the Pauli principle which is engaged by the dominance of gravity over the nuclear force. Three especially interesting phenomena are discussed in this contect--(1) a mechanism for the formation of low-mass black holes distinct in their mass-range from the black holes formed in the prompt collapse of an entire star, (2) a multilayered crystalline structure consisting of confined hadronic matter embedded in a background of deconfined quark matter (or vice versa) which occupies a many kilometer thick inner region, and (3) a clean and pronounced signal of the formation of quark matter in the interior of neutron stars. In the second lecture I will discuss the strange matter hypothesis, its viability as well as its consequences for compact stars and a new family of white dwarfs with dense nuclear matter central regions some orders of magnuitude greater than in ordinary white dwarfs.