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Title: The Golden Era of Neutron Stars: From Hadrons to Quarks
Neutron stars were first posited in the early thirties and discovered as pulsars in late sixties; however, only recently are we beginning to understand the matter they contain. This talk describes the continuing development of a consistent picture of the liquid interiors of neutron stars, driven by four advances: observations of heavy neutron stars with masses in the range of two solar masses; inferences of masses and radii simultaneously for an increasing number of neutron stars in low mass X-ray binaries, and ongoing determinations via the NICER observatory; the observation of the binary neutron star merger, GW170817, through gravitational waves as well as across the electromagnetic spectrum; and an emerging understanding in QCD of how nuclear matter can turn into deconfined quark matter in the interior. We describe the modern quark-hadron crossover equation of state, QHC18 and now QHC19, and the corresponding neutron stars, which agree well with current observations.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1714042
PAR ID:
10126216
Author(s) / Creator(s):
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Proc. 8th Int. Conf. Quarks and Nuclear Physics (QNP2018)
Volume:
26
Page Range / eLocation ID:
011001
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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