Neutron stars are the smallest denses stars known, with densities some 1014 times that of the Earth. They rotate with periods of fractions of a second, and their magnetic fields drive intense interstellar dynamos, lighting up entire nebulae. This text discusses the physics of these extreme objects. It includes the needed background in classical general relativity in nuclear and particle physics.
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ISBN-13
978-1-4684-0491-3 (9781468404913)
DOI
10.1007/978-1-4684-0491-3
Schweitzer Klassifikation
1 Introduction.- 1.1 Compact Stars.- 1.2 Compact Stars and Relativistic Physics.- 1.3 Compact Stars and Dense-Matter Physics.- 2 General Relativity.- 2.1 Lorentz Invariance.- 2.2 Scalars, Vectors, and Tensors in Curvilinear Coordinates.- 2.3 Principle of Equivalence of Inertia and Gravitation.- 2.4 Gravity.- 2.5 Covariance.- 2.6 Riemann Curvature Tensor.- 2.7 Einstein's Field Equations.- 2.8 Relativistic Stars.- 2.9 Action Principle in Gravity.- 3 Compact Stars: From Dwarfs to Black Holes.- 3.1 Birth and Death of Stars.- 3.2 Objective.- 3.3 Gravitational Units and Neutron Star Size.- 3.4 Partial Decoupling of Matter from Gravity.- 3.5 Equations of Relativistic Stellar Structure.- 3.6 Electrical Neutrality of Stars.- 3.7 "Constancy" of the Chemical Potential.- 3.8 Gravitational Redshift.- 3.9 White Dwarfs and Neutron Stars.- 3.10 Improvements in White Dwarf Models.- 3.11 Stellar Sequences from White Dwarfs to Neutron Stars.- 3.12 Star of Uniform Density.- 3.13 Baryon Number of a Star.- 3.14 Bound on Maximum Mass of Neutron Stars.- 3.15 Beyond Maximum-Mass Neutron Stars.- 3.16 Black Holes.- 4 Relativistic Nuclear Field Theory.- 4.1 Motivation.- 4.2 Lagrange Formalism.- 4.3 Symmetries and Conservation Laws.- 4.4 Boson and Fermion Fields.- 4.5 Properties of Nuclear Matter.- 4.6 The ? - ? Model.- 4.7 Stationarity of Energy Density.- 4.8 Model with Scalar Self-Interactions.- 4.9 Introduction of Isospin Force.- 4.10 Inclusion of the Octet of Baryons.- 4.11 High-Density Limit.- 4.12 Effective vs. Renormalized Theory.- 4.13 Bound vs. Unbound Neutron Matter.- 4.14 Note on Dimensions.- 4.15 Summary.- 5 Neutron Stars.- 5.1 Introduction.- 5.2 Pulsars: The Observational Basis of Neutron Stars.- 5.3 Theory of Neutron Stars.- 5.4 Constitution of Neutron Stars.- 5.5 Tables ofEquations of State.- 6 Rotating Neutron Stars.- 6.1 Motivation.- 6.2 Dragging of Local Inertial Frames.- 6.3 Interior Solution for the Dragging Frequency.- 6.4 Kepler Angular Velocity in General Relativity.- 6.5 Effect of Frame Dragging on Kepler Frequency.- 6.6 Hartle-Thorne Perturbative Solution.- 6.7 Imprint of Angular Momentum.- 6.8 Rotating Stars with Realistic Equations of State.- 6.9 Effect of Rotation on Stellar Structure.- 6.10 Gravitational-Wave Instabilities.- 7 Limiting Rotational Period of Neutron Stars.- 7.1 Motivation.- 7.2 The Minimal Constraints.- 7.3 Variational Ansatz.- 7.4 Limiting Value of Rotational Period as a Function of Mass.- 7.5 Test of Sensitivity of Results.- 7.6 General Relativistic Limit on Rotation.- 7.7 Discussion and Alternatives.- 7.8 Summary.- 8 Quark Stars.- 8.1 Introduction.- 8.2 Quark Matter Equation of State.- 8.3 Quark Star Matter.- 8.4 Strange and Charm Stars.- 8.5 Beyond White Dwarfs and Neutron Stars.- 9 Hybrid Stars.- 9.1 Introduction.- 9.2 Constant-Pressure Phase Transition.- 9.3 The Confined-Deconfined Phase Transition in Neutron Stars.- 9.4 Degrees of Freedom in a Multicomponent System.- 9.5 Gross Structure of a Hybrid Star.- 9.6 Crystalline Structure.- 9.7 Mechanism for Formation of Low-Mass Black Holes.- 9.8 Tables of Equation of State for Hybrid Stars.- 10 Strange Stars.- 10.1 The Strange Matter Hypothesis.- 10.2 Compatibility of the Hypothesis with Present Knowledge.- 10.3 Submillisecond Pulsars.- 10.4 Structure of Strange Stars.- 10.5 Strange Stars to Strange Dwarfs.- 10.6 Conclusion.- Appendix A: Useful Astronomical Data.- Books for Further Study.- References.
