Related papers: Observing Quantum Vacuum Lensing in Magnetized Neu…
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…
Understanding dense matter under extreme conditions is one of the most fundamental puzzles in modern physics. Complex interactions give rise to emergent, collective phenomena. While nuclear experiments and Earth - based colliders provide…
Cosmological probes are steadily reducing the total neutrino mass window, resulting in constraints on the neutrino-mass degeneracy as the most significant outcome. In this work we explore the discovery potential of cosmological probes to…
Neutron stars are highly compact astrophysical objects and therefore of utmost relevance to learn about theories of gravity. Whereas the proper equation of state of the nuclear matter inside neutron stars is not yet known, and a wide range…
Surface asymmetries of accreting neutron stars are investigated for their mass quadrupole moment content. Though the amplitude of the gravitational waves from such asymmetries seem to be beyond the limit of detectability of the present…
We have determined the dispersion relation of a neutrino test particle propagating in the cosmic neutrino background. Describing the relic neutrinos and antineutrinos from the hot big bang as a dense medium, a matter potential or refractive…
We consider the magneto-electric optical properties of the quantum vacuum and show that all the different phenomenona are related by Lorentz invariance. As a model calculation we show how crossed fields properties can be calculated starting…
Although the prospect is more plausible than it might appear, the answer to the title question is, unfortunately, "probably not." Quantum fluctuations of vacuum energy can focus light, and while the effect is tiny, the distribution of…
The possibilities of observing some nonlinear electrodynamic effects, which can be manifested in hard emission of X-ray, gamma ray pulsars and magnetars by X-ray and gamma ray astronomy methods are discussed. The angular resolution and…
Gravitational wave (GW) transients from binary neutron star (BNS) coalescences can, in principle, be subject to gravitational lensing thereby increasing the amplitude and signal-to-noise ratio. We estimate the rate of lensed BNS events…
Quantum illumination can utilize entangled light to detect the low-reflectivity target that is hidden in a bright thermal background. This technique is applied to the detection of an object in the curved spacetime of the Earth, in order to…
More than half of the volume of our Universe is occupied by cosmic voids. The lensing magnification effect from those under-dense regions is generally thought to give a small dimming contribution: objects on the far side of a void are…
In this lecture, we give a first introduction to neutron stars, based on fundamental physical principles. After outlining their outstanding macroscopic properties, as obtained from observations, we infer the extreme conditions of matter in…
Mature neutron stars are expected to exhibit gravity g-modes due to stratification caused by a varying matter composition in the high-density core. By employing the BSk equation of state family, and working within the relativistic Cowling…
The past decades have witnessed a lot of progress in gravitational lensing with two main targets: stars and galaxies (with active galactic nuclei). The success is partially attributed to the continuous luminescence of these sources making…
We argue that the Black Hole-Neutron Star (BH-NS) binaries are the natural astrophysical probes of quantum gravity in the context of the new era of multi-messenger astronomy. In particular, we discuss the observable effect of enhanced…
Binary neutron star mergers observations are a unique way to constrain fundamental physics and astrophysics at the extreme. The interpretation of gravitational-wave events and their electromagnetic counterparts crucially relies on…
The Einstein rings and proper motions of nearby stars tend to be large. Thus, every year some foreground stars within a few hundred parsecs of Earth induce gravitational lensing events in background stars. In some of these cases, the events…
Subvacuum effects arise in quantum field theory when a classically positive quantity, such as the local energy density, acquires a negative renormalized expectation value. Here we investigate the case of states of the quantized…
In this chapter we give an overview of the properties of X-ray binary systems containing a weakly magnetized neutron star. These are old (Giga-years life-time) semi-detached binary systems containing a neutron star with a relatively weak…