Studies of Degenerate Stars

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Among the most impressive strides in astrophysics over the last decade has been in the area of the physics of compact stars. Part of the reason for these advances has been the less visible but equally important progress made in the theory of their internal structure. In the past several years the Principal Investigator (PI) has been at the forefront of the application of solid-state theoretical physics to the construction of models of white dwarfs and neutron stars. This one-year award will provide support for a student, Mr. Gordon Brown, to continue his Ph.D. dissertation on two related topics: disk oscillations of low-mass X-ray binaries and nonradial pulsations of magnetized neutron stars. The first of these is currently a keen subject of X-ray observational research. The second is a new class of pulsation modes endemic only to magnetic neutron stars ("pulsars").