Neutron Stars for Undergraduates
Richard R. Silbar, Sanjay Reddy
Abstract
Calculating the structure of white dwarf and neutron stars would be a suitable topic for an undergraduate thesis or an advanced special topics or independent study course. The subject is rich in many different areas of physics accessible to a junior or senior physics major, ranging from thermodynamics to quantum statistics to nuclear physics to special and general relativity. The computations for solving the coupled structure differential equations (both Newtonian and general relativistic) can be done using a symbolic computational package, such as Mathematica. In doing so, the student will develop computational skills and learn how to deal with dimensions. Along the way he or she will also have learned some of the physics of equations of state and of degenerate stars.
Create a lesson
Related papers
Constraining three-nucleon forces in nuclear lattice effective field theory
Serdar Elhatisari, Ulf-G. Meißner, Zhengxue Ren et al.
Collective-flow signatures of bubble nuclei in intermediate-energy projectile fragmentation reactions
Ge Ren, Chun-Wang Ma, Xi-Guang Cao et al.
R-process nuclei in the rare-earth region above N=126 in Relativistic Hartree-Bogoliubov theory: A preponderance of shape-coexistence in nuclei
M. M. Sharma
Binding energies in the 0-+ and 1-- fermion--antifermion channels from the ladder Bethe-Salpeter and Schrödinger equations
Wei He, Hai-Qing Zhou
Strange-quark-number-dependent response to partonic dynamics in baryon-rich Au+Au collisions
Di Zhao, Xun Zhu, Gao-Chan Yong
A 4D T-expanded lattice QCD equation of state with a multi-dimensional 3D-Ising-type critical contribution
Francesco Di Clemente, Prachi Garella, Johannes Jahan et al.