Relativistic Astrophysics of Neutron Stars

中子星和黑洞是宇宙中最致密的天体。它们强大的引力场使我们能够探索在地面实验中无法到达的物理体系，并检验引力物理理论。虽然黑洞是相当简单的物体（它们只不过是空的空间），但中子星要难得多。这是因为它们是物质密度最大的结构，对引力坍缩是稳定的。中子星中心核心的密度可以比核物质的密度大很多倍。由于地球上的实验无法重现如此高的密度，中子星的内部结构还没有得到很好的理解。******这项研究计划的主要焦点是中子星动力学的理论研究，重点是它们产生的电磁辐射。对含有中子星的系统发出的光的观测，如脉冲星、x射线双星、磁星，可能还有伽马射线暴，提供了大量的数据来比较理论预测。引力波探测器（如LIGO）有望在21世纪初投入使用，有可能探测到孤立的中子星或出现在双星中的中子星。****提出的研究将包括对快速旋转中子星附近光传播的计算研究，以便对相对论效应（如框架拖拽和引力透镜）做出理论预测，这些效应可能被当今的x射线望远镜探测到。这项工作也将在限制描述中子星内部致密核物质的可能理论方面发挥作用。******

Neutron stars and black holes are the most compact astrophysical objects in the universe. Their strong gravitational fields allow us to explore a regime of physics inaccessible in terrestrial experiments and to test theories of gravitational physics. Although black holes are reasonably simple objects to describe (they are merely empty space), neutron stars are considerably more difficult. This is because they are the densest configurations of matter possible which are stable to gravitational collapse. The density in the central core of a neutron star can be many times more dense than nuclear matter. Since experiments on Earth can't reproduce such high densities, the internal structure of a neutron star is not well understood.******The main focus of this research proposal is a theoretical study of neutron star dynamics with an emphasis on the electromagnetic radiation they produce. Observations of light originating from systems containing neutron stars, such as pulsars, x-ray binaries, magnetars, and possibly gamma-ray bursters, provide a great wealth of data with which to compare theoretical predictions. Gravitational wave detectors (such as LIGO) -- expected to be operational in the early part of the twenty-first century -- have the potential to detect neutron stars which are isolated or occur in binaries.****The proposed research will involve computational studies of the propagation of light near rapidly rotating neutron stars in order to make theoretical predictions about relativistic effects (such as frame-dragging and gravitational lensing) which may be detectable by present-day X-ray telescopes. This work will also play a role in constraining the possible theories of dense nuclear matter which describe the interior of a neutron star.******