Learning about the neutron star composition from observations

by Constança Providência (CFisUC)

Wednesday 22 Oct 2025, 14:00 → 15:00 Portugal

Sala de Conferências (Departamento de Física FCTUC)

The QCD phase diagram at high density and zero temperature is still not known. Neutron stars could be the laboratory to learn about dense strongly interacting matter. Some discussion about this problem will be presented. The composition of the core of neutron stars is still under debate. One possibility is that matter could be deconfined into quark matter due to the high densities reached in their cores. The possible existence of hadronic and hybrid stars is studied using microscopic models to describe the different phases of matter, and different compositions. Within these microscopic models, we aim to calculate the properties of neutron stars and nuclear matter and discuss the effect of different compositions of matter. It will be shown that different compositions of neutron stars are compatible with current observational data. The implications of possible information on the local derivatives from the mass-radius diagram in neutron star matter will be discussed. It is expected that the next generation of gravitational wave and electromagnetic detectors will allow the determination of the neutron star radius and mass with a small uncertainty, which will have an important impact on the information that can be extracted about the high density equation of state of baryonic matter.