Observations of Neutron Stars

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Neutron stars, gravitationally collapsed remnants of massive stars that have run out of nuclear fuel, embody some of the most extreme physics in the observable Universe. Their central densities are thought to be higher than that in the atomic nucleus, so high in fact that the behaviour of matter is not known. They are sometimes found in short-orbital-period binary systems in which the two stars orbit each other at significant fractions of the speed of light; this, together with neutron stars' amazingly precise clock-like pulses, allows sensitive tests of gravitational theories like Einstein's General Relativity. Some neutron stars display sudden violent bursts of X-rays; these "magnetars" are thought to be powered by the strongest magnetic fields in the known Universe. This proposal is to use the world's largest radio and X-ray telescopes, both ground- and space-based, in order to both constrain fundamental physics using observations of neutron stars. We will also understand neutron stars themselves as endpoints of stellar evolution, and their relation to other major components of our Milky Way Galaxy.