Observations of Neutron Stars

中子星是耗尽核燃料的大质量恒星在重力作用下塌缩的残余物，体现了可观测宇宙中一些最极端的物理现象。 人们认为它们的中心密度比原子核的中心密度高，实际上高得以至于物质的行为尚不清楚。 它们有时出现在短轨道周期双星系统中，在该系统中，两颗恒星以远低于光速的速度相互绕转。这与中子星令人惊讶的精确时钟脉冲一起，可以对爱因斯坦广义相对论等引力理论进行敏感测试。 一些中子星会突然爆发出猛烈的 X 射线；这些“磁星”被认为是由已知宇宙中最强的磁场提供动力的。 该提议是使用世界上最大的地面和太空射电和X射线望远镜，以便利用中子星观测来约束基础物理。 我们还将了解中子星本身作为恒星演化的终点，以及它们与银河系其他主要组成部分的关系。

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.