Le 15 septembre 2017
De 10h30 à 12h00
Sebastien Guillot
Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile
Neutron stars are fantastic cosmic laboratories to study the most extreme physics. Their intense gravitational fields can provide tests of general relativity and other theories of gravitation. Their unmatched magnetic fields permit studies of the interaction between matter and these fields. And their extreme interior densities allow us to probe matter in regimes not accessible to Earth laboratories.
Observationally, the thermal emission from the surface of neutron stars provides insight on the physics in their interior. In this talk, I will present my work on different classes of neutron stars and how their surface emission is interpreted to study various aspects of the extreme physics. In particular, I will discuss 1) neutron star radius measurements which inform on the equation of state of dense matter, and 2) observational constraints on the thermal evolution of young and old neutron stars as a probe for crustal physics. Throughout the talk, I will address future prospects of such work with upcoming observatories (planned or in development), such as NICER, the ATHENA X-ray Observatory, or the European Extremely Large Telescope.