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Chapter 21: Problem 16

Does a neutron star contain only neutrons? If not, what else does it contain?

Short Answer

Expert verified
While a neutron star primarily contains neutrons, it also includes a small proportion of protons and electrons. The core of a neutron star might comprise a quark-gluon plasma, though this is a theoretical presumption not yet confirmed by direct observation.

Step by step solution

01

Understanding Neutron Stars

A neutron star is a celestial object resulting from the gravitational collapse of a massive star during a supernova explosion. Despite the name, the star does not consist solely of neutrons. There are other particles present in a neutron star.
02

Identifying Other Particles in Neutron Stars

Aside from neutrons, neutron stars contain a small proportion of protons and electrons as well. This is because when a neutron star forms, protons and electrons merge to form neutrons. However, not all of them manage to combine, leaving a small percentage of these particles in the neutron star.
03

Addressing the Core of Neutron Stars

The neutron star also contains a core. When the density gets high enough, neutrons might break down into their constituent parts (quarks), forming a quark-gluon plasma. This is a theoretical prediction and is yet to be confirmed by direct observation.

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Most popular questions from this chapter

There are many more main-sequence stars of low mass (less than \(8 \mathrm{M}_{\odot}\) ) than of high mass ( \(8 \mathrm{M}_{\odot}\) or more). Use this fact to explain why white dwarf stars are far more common than neutron stars.

Accretion disks in close binary systems are too small to be seen directly with even the highest-resolution telescopes. How, then, can astronomers detect the presence of such accretion disks?

The Crab Nebula has an apparent size of about 5 arcmin, and this size is increasing at a rate of \(0.23\) arcsec per year. (a) Assume that the expansion rate has been constant over the entire history of the Crab Nebula. Based on this assumption, in what year would Earth observers have seen the supernova explosion that formed the nebula? (b) Does your answer to part (a) agree with the known year of the supernova, 1054 A.D.? If not, can you point to assumptions you made in your computations that led to the discrepancies? Or do you think your calculations suggest additional physical effects are at work in the Crate of expansion?

Describe a pulsating X-ray source like Hercules \(\mathrm{X}-1\) or Centaurus X-3. What produces the pulsation?

Why does an isolated pulsar rotate more slowly as time goes by?
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