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球实验中无法实现的物理机制，并测试引力物理学理论。虽然黑洞是相当简单的对象来描述（他们只是空的空间），中子星是相当困难的。这是因为它们是物质可能的致密构型，对于引力坍缩是稳定的。中子星星中央核心的密度可能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重点是中子星星动力学的理论研究，重点是它们产生的电磁辐射。对来自包含中子星的系统（如磁星、X射线双星、磁星和可能的伽马射线爆发）的光的观测，提供了大量的数据来比较理论预测。引力波探测器（如LIGO）-预计将在21世纪早期投入使用-有可能探测孤立的或以双星形式出现的中子星。 拟议中的研究将涉及光在快速旋转的中子星附近传播的计算研究，以便对当今X射线望远镜可能探测到的相对论效应（如框架拖曳和引力透镜）进行理论预测。这项工作也将在限制描述中子星星内部的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.