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  Introduction to neutron star physics

+ 5 like - 0 dislike
766 views

I enjoy thinking about theoretical astrophysics because I want to understand black holes. Given that no one understands black holes, I like to ponder the nearest thing to a black hole: a neutron star! I have searched around the web for pedagogical discussions of the structure of neutron stars such as this link from NASA: http://heasarc.nasa.gov/docs/objects/binaries/neutron_star_structure.html, but none seems to be at an advanced enough level for my liking. The problem is that I do not know what literature I should read in order to learn more.

What is the current state of neutron star research? What are some good review articles?

More specifically, I am curious about theoretical predictions for "starquakes" referenced in the link above, and how they would look to an observer on Earth. I would also be interested in understanding what happens to gas falling into a neutron star -- specifically, if Sol was spiralling to its death by neutron star.


This post has been migrated from (A51.SE)

asked Feb 2, 2012 in Theoretical Physics by Kernel (125 points) [ revision history ]
retagged Mar 18, 2014 by dimension10
Kernel, I added the [tag:astrophysics]. Moreover, I rephrased the title (I hope you like it, if not - let me know).

This post has been migrated from (A51.SE)
Looks good! Thanks, Piotr.

This post has been migrated from (A51.SE)
I'd warn you that neutron stars are in fact (at least classically) much more complicated objects than black holes.

This post has been migrated from (A51.SE)
I'm OK with that :D

This post has been migrated from (A51.SE)

1 Answer

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There are a few standard textbooks on neutron star.

For interior structure and nuclear physics side two books by Glendenning are good.

http://www-nsdth.lbl.gov/~nkg/description.html

For more general relativity side Shapiro and Teukolsky has been a standard texk book for many years.

http://www.amazon.com/Black-Holes-White-Dwarfs-Neutron/dp/0471873160

Finally, if you seek for real rigor, a new book by Friedman & Stergioulas is must.

http://www.amazon.com/Rotating-Relativistic-Stergioulas-Cambridge-Monographs/dp/0521872545

There are several review papers including two in Living Review.

http://relativity.livingreviews.org/Articles/lrr-2003-3/

http://relativity.livingreviews.org/Articles/lrr-2007-1/

Several by Lattimer and Prakash are also good starting point. For example,

http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0612440

This post has been migrated from (A51.SE)
answered Feb 3, 2012 by Demian Cho (285 points) [ no revision ]

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