Neutron stars are some of the strangest objects in space. They are created during a supernova, a huge explosion of a (supergiant) star. After this event, the remaining core is compressed. These stars are characterized by a small diameter of several tens of kilometers and a gigantic mass. Scientists estimate that a matchbox containing neutron star material would weigh about 3 billion tons.
One of the main mysteries of these stars is what lies at their centers: the composition of the superdense material located in the core remains unclear.
Scientists from the University of Helsinki in their new scientific paper suggest the existence of so-called neutron stars in the cores of neutron stars. cold quark matter in which individual particles such as protons and neutrons no longer exist. They showed that such material could exist in the most massive neutron stars with a probability of 80-90%.
This conclusion was drawn as a result of supercomputer calculations using Bayesian statistical inference. According to scientists, the matter in question would be made up of three types of quarks, down, up and strange. In this state, quarks and gluons (particles through which quarks interact with each other) lose their limitations and begin to move almost freely in matter.
Scientists also report that it is possible that all such stars are made of nuclear material. However, when even traces of quark matter appear, they collapse into a black hole.
The transformation of nuclear matter into quark matter (which requires a first-order phase transition) is supposed to resemble the transformation of liquid water into ice. The researchers believe that it would be possible to determine the limits of this force if they could record the gravitational waves that are created during the last phase of the merger of two neutron stars.
– It is fascinating to see how each new observation of a neutron star allows us to more precisely infer the properties of the material that makes up these stars, says Dr. Joonas Nättilä, one of the lead authors of the paper.
As Joonas Hirvonen adds: – Millions of hours of supercomputer work were needed to be able to compare our theoretical predictions with observations and reduce the probability of the existence of stellar cores made up of quark matter. We are extremely grateful to the Finnish supercomputing center CSC for providing us with all the necessary resources.
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2024-01-07 11:12:00
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