Related papers: A fundamental test for physics: the galactic super…
Three observational tests of cosmological natural selection, a theory that follows from some hypotheses about quantum gravity, are described. If true, this theory explains the choices of the parameters of the standard model of particle…
Gravitation has posed a puzzle and a problem for many decades. Attempts to unify it with other fundamental interactions have failed. These problems and puzzles have been underscored by the likes of Witten and Weinberg. We survey this and…
Neutron stars and black holes are the astrophysical systems with the strongest gravitational fields in the universe. In this article, I review the prospect of probing with observations of such compact objects some of the most intriguing…
Newtonian mechanics indicates that galaxies and galaxy clusters are much more massive than we would have guessed from their luminosities, with the discrepancy being generally attributed to dark matter halos. An alternative hypothesis is…
The Standard Model of Particle Physics has proven to be tremendously successful as the fundamental theory that describes the elementary particles that compose our Universe, as well as the interactions among them. Despite the countless…
The standard Big Bang cosmology predicts the existence of an, as yet undetected, relic neutrino background, similar to the photons observed in the cosmic microwave background. If neutrinos have mass, then such relic neutrinos are a natural…
Gravitational waves astronomy allows us to study objects and events invisible in electromagnetic waves. It is crucial to validate the theories and models of the most mysterious and extreme matter in the Universe: the neutron stars. In…
We explore the unique and fascinating structure of neutron stars. Although neutron stars are of interest in many areas of Physics, our aim is to provide an intellectual bridge between Nuclear Physics and Astrophysics. We argue against the…
A nearby supernova will carry an unprecedented wealth of information about astrophysics, nuclear physics, and particle physics. Because supernova are fundamentally neutrino driven phenomenon, our knowledge about neutrinos -- particles that…
Under the assumption that General Relativity (GR) correctly describes the phenomenology of our Universe, astronomical observations provide compelling evidence that (1) the dynamics of cosmic structure is dominated by dark matter (DM), an…
Solar, atmospheric and reactor neutrino experiments established that neutrinos are massive. It is quite natural then to consider neutrinos as candidate particles for explaining the dark matter in halos around galaxies. We study the…
Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) and supernovae (SNe) bring new perspectives to the study of neutron stars and white dwarfs, as well as opening new branches of theoretical physics and astrophysics.
Neutron stars are powerful probes into the extremes of physics. In this chapter, we will discuss how observations of neutron stars, either in isolation or in binaries, can be leveraged to test general relativity and constrain competing…
A neutron star is pictured as a gigantic nucleus overwhelmed by the number of neutrons, unlike real atomic nuclei, that have a similar number of neutrons and protons. Is this true? What if we could find, or create nuclei without protons?…
Dynamical mass discrepancies in galaxies have two possible explanations: the existence of large amounts of dark matter or the breakdown of Newtonian gravity. True dark matter halos of galaxies could differ in several respects from apparent…
Neutron stars are a remarkable marriage of Einstein's theory of general relativity with nuclear physics. Their interiors harbor extreme matter that cannot be probed in the laboratory. At such high densities and pressures, their cores may…
The speed of sound of the matter within neutron stars may contain non-smooth structure related to first-order phase transitions or or crossovers. Here we investigate what are the observable consequences of structure, such as bumps, spikes,…
The discovery of nondiffuse sources of gravitational waves through compact-object mergers opens new prospects for the study of physics beyond the Standard Model. In this paper, we study the effects of a new force between quarks, suggested…
We consider two problems that have vexed physicists for several decades -- dark matter and the cosmological constant. The problem has been that the former has not been detected while the latter gives a far higher value than detected by…
The fact that mass has an effect on surrounding space is the first essential element of general relativity. This paper unifies this mass/space distinction of general relativity with Newtonian gravity at a subatomic scale and with reported…