Observations of Neutron Stars

中子星是由耗尽核燃料的大质量恒星在引力作用下坍塌的残骸，体现了可观测宇宙中一些最极端的物理现象。它们的中心密度被认为比原子核的中心密度要高，实际上高到人们还不知道物质的行为。它们有时在短轨道周期双星系统中被发现，在这种系统中，两颗恒星以光速的相当一部分相互绕转；这一点，再加上中子星惊人的精确时钟般的脉冲，使得对爱因斯坦广义相对论等引力理论的灵敏测试成为可能。有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驱动的。这个提议是使用世界上最大的射电和x射线望远镜，包括地面和太空望远镜，以便通过对中子星的观测来约束基础物理学。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.