2000/08/23 by Fridolin Weber
Physics and Astronomy · #Atomic and Subatomic Physics Research #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #astro-ph #nucl-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/0954-3899/27/3/326
published as J.Phys.G27:465-474,2001 · 15 pages, 6 figures, Presented at the 5th International Conference on Strangeness in Quark Matter (Strangeness 2000), Berkeley, California, USA, July 20-25, 2000
arxiv created 2000/08/23 · openalex publication_date 2001/02/20 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
It is generally agreed that the tremendous densities reached in the centres of neutron stars provide a high-pressure environment in which numerous novel particle processes are likely to compete with each other. These processes range from the generation of hyperons to quark deconfinement to the formation of kaon condensates and H-matter. There are theoretical suggestions of even more exotic processes inside neutron stars, such as the formation of absolutely stable strange quark matter, a configuration of matter even more stable than the most stable atomic nucleus, iron. In the latter event, neutron stars would be largely composed of pure quark matter, eventually enveloped in a thin nuclear crust. No matter which physical processes are actually realized inside neutron stars, each one leads to fingerprints, some more pronounced than others though, in the observable stellar quantities. This feature combined with the unprecedented progress in observational astronomy, which allows us to see vistas with remarkable clarity that previously were only imagined, renders neutron stars nearly ideal probes for a wide range of physical studies, including the role of strangeness in dense matter.