RUI: Probing QCD with Magnetic Fields in the Multimessenger Astronomy Era

有一种名为中子星(NS)的天体，密度如此之大，以至于其内部物质的一小部分就有大约1亿吨的质量。通常，这些恒星物体也会受到非常大的磁场的影响。一类特殊的中子星，被称为磁星，其表面磁场可能比太阳强15个数量级，甚至在其内核中可能存在更强的磁场。原子核理论界的一个非常重要的目标是对这些极端条件下物质的性质进行建模和研究。最近对中子星合并产生的引力波的观测，以及随后对来自同一来源的伽马射线爆发和其他电磁信号的探测，开启了一个非常有前途的多传送器天文学的新时代--这个时代正在推动对恒星的组成、元素形成和我们宇宙演化的认识和理解的边界。在这个多信使时代，包括脉冲星计时、伽马射线爆发和引力波探测在内的观测正在蓬勃发展，因此识别能够解释这些观测的恒星组成模型的压力越来越大。该项目与这些努力相一致，试图探索在高物质密度和极强磁场等极端条件下可能存在的物质相。研究生和本科生将从参与相关研究任务中受益。2015年，高级LIGO天文台和高级处女座天文台打开了通过引力波(GW)观察宇宙的新窗口。2017年8月17日，探测到了一种新的GW天体物理源，表示该源为NS。NS是唯一的天然实验室，用于研究超出地面实验能力的低温和高密度核物质的物理。通过恒星状态方程及其热传输，NS的宏观特征，如质量、半径、潮汐变形性、冷却和其他可从GW和电磁观测中测量的性质，与恒星的内部物质相关联。在这个项目中，PIS将利用之前在拓扑凝聚物质系统和冷致密夸克物质之间的联系所获得的洞察力来探索一些变革性的想法，比如NS和暗物质之间的可能联系，以及继续扩大对极端条件下夸克物质的理解。这个项目推进了未来NSF投资的十大想法之一的“宇宙之窗：多信使天体物理时代”的目标。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

There are astrophysical objects named neutron stars (NS) so dense that a single thimbleful of its inner matter would have a mass of about 100 million tons. Quite often, these stellar objects are also permeated by very large magnetic fields. A special class of neutron stars, known as magnetars, can have surface magnetic fields fifteen orders of magnitude stronger than the sun’s, and even much stronger fields in their inner cores are expected to exist. A very important goal of the nuclear theory community is to model and investigate the properties of matter under these extreme conditions. The recent observations of gravitational waves generated by neutron star mergers and the subsequent detection of gamma-ray bursts and other electromagnetic signals from the same source opened a new, very promising era of multimessenger astronomy – one that is pushing the boundaries of knowledge and understanding about the star’s composition, elements formation, and the evolution of our universe. In this multi-messenger era, observations including pulsar timing, gamma-ray bursts, and gravitational waves detection are booming, so the pressure to identify models of star composition that can explain those observations is intensifying. This project is aligned with these efforts, trying to explore the matter phases that can exist at extreme conditions like high matter density and extremely strong magnetic fields. Graduate and undergraduate students will benefit through their participation in related research tasks.In 2015, the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo observatories opened a new window to observe the universe through gravitational waves (GW). On August 17th, 2017, a new type of astrophysical source of GW was detected that signalized the sources as NS. NS are unique natural laboratories for investigating the physics of cold and highly dense nuclear matter beyond the capability of terrestrial experiments. Macroscopic characteristics of NS, such as masses, radii, tidal deformability, cooling, and other properties that can be measured from GW and electromagnetic observations, are related, through the star equation of state and its heat transport, to the inner matter phase of the star. In this project, the PIs will use the insight gained in previous work regarding the connection between topological condensed matter systems and cold-dense quark matter to explore some transformative ideas like a possible connection between NS and dark matter, as well as to continue expanding the understanding of quark-matter under extreme conditions.This project advances the objectives of "Windows on the Universe: the Era of Multi-Messenger Astrophysics", one of the 10 Big Ideas for Future NSF Investments.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.