High-Density Matter

When?

Tuesday 2 October 2012, 14:00

Where?

30BB03 Physics Seminar Room

Open to:

Staff, Students

Speaker:

Jirina Stone, University of Tennessee/University of Oxford

The microscopic composition and properties of matter at super-saturation densities have been a subject of intense investigation for decades. The scarcity of experimental and observational data has lead to the necessary reliance on theoretical models.  However, there remains great uncertainty in these models which,  of necessity, have to go  beyond the over-simple assumption that high density matter  consists only of  nucleons and leptons. Heavy strange baryons, mesons and quark matter in different forms and phases have to be included to fulfill basic requirements of fundamental laws of physics.

I will survey the latest developments in construction of the Equation of State (EoS) of high-density matter at zero and finite temperature assuming different composition of the matter.  Critical comparison of model EoS with available observational data on neutron stars, including gravitation mass, radii and cooling patterns and data on X-Ray burst sources and low mass X-ray binaries will be made. The effect of changing rotational frequency on the composition of neutron stars during their lifetime will be demonstrated. Possible conflict between the EoS of high-density, low temperature compact objects and low density, high temperature matter, such as is created in heavy ion collisions will be discussed.