相关论文: The Extreme Physics Explorer
In this White Paper we present the potential of the Enhanced X-ray Timing and Polarimetry (eXTP) mission for determining the nature of dense matter; neutron star cores host an extreme density regime which cannot be replicated in a…
Among the known particles, the neutron takes a special position, as it provides experimental access to all four fundamental forces and a wide range of hypothetical interactions. Despite being unstable, free neutrons live long enough to be…
The hard X-ray emission from magnetars and other isolated neutron stars remains under-explored. An instrument with higher sensitivity to hard X-rays is critical to understanding the physics of neutron star magnetospheres and also the…
Tracing the formation and evolution of all supermassive black holes, including the obscured ones, understanding how black holes influence their surroundings and how matter behaves under extreme conditions, are recognized as key science…
With high spatial resolution, polarimetric imaging of a supermassive black hole, like M87$^\star$ or Sgr A$^\star$, by the Event Horizon Telescope can be used to probe the existence of ultralight bosonic particles, such as axions. Such…
The x-ray emission of hot spots on the surface of neutron stars is the prime target of the Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER). These x-ray pulse profiles not only encode information of the bulk properties of these stars,…
General relativity predicts that black hole images ought to display a bright, thin (and as-of-yet-unresolved) ring. This "photon ring" is produced by photons that explore the strong gravity of the black hole, flowing along trajectories that…
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…
Supernovae are Nature's high-energy, high density laboratory experiments, reaching densities in excess of nuclear densities and temperatures above 10MeV. Astronomers have built up a suite of diagnostics to study these supernovae. If we can…
We present the novel capabilities of the enhanced X-ray Timing and Polarimetry (eXTP) mission to study the strong gravity region around stellar-mass black holes in X-ray binary systems and supermassive black holes in active galactic nuclei.…
Very compact objects probe extreme gravitational fields and may be the key to understand outstanding puzzles in fundamental physics. These include the nature of dark matter, the fate of spacetime singularities, or the loss of unitarity in…
The experimental search for ultra high energy cosmic messengers, from $E\sim 10^{19}$ eV to beyond $E\sim 10^{20}$ eV, at the very end of the known energy spectrum, constitutes an extraordinary opportunity to explore a largely unknown…
In this lecture, we give a first introduction to neutron stars, based on fundamental physical principles. After outlining their amazing macroscopic properties, as obtained from observations, we infer the extreme conditions of matter in…
The DArk Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE) is a satellite-borne, high-energy particle and $\gamma$-ray detector, which is dedicated to indirectly detecting particle dark matter and studying high-energy astrophysics. The first results about…
Accreting neutron stars (NSs) represent a unique laboratory for probing the physics of accretion in the presence of strong magnetic fields ($B\gtrsim 10^8$ G). Additionally, the matter inside the NS itself exists in an ultra-dense, cold…
Neutron stars are versatile in their application to studying various important aspects of fundamental physics, in particular strong-field gravity tests and the equation of state for super-dense nuclear matter at low temperatures. However,…
Extragalactic astronomy with photons ends at ~0.1 PeV, but we know there are astrophysical sources for seven more decades of energy beyond this. To probe the highest energy sources and particles in the universe, new messengers, such as…
Cosmological measurements of the radiation density in the early universe can be used as a sensitive probe of physics beyond the standard model. Observations of primordial light element abundances have long been used to place non-trivial…
Precision astrometry offers a way to probe new physics. By measuring the angular position of light sources at unprecedented precision, astrometry could probe minuscule fluctuations of underlying spacetime. This work explores the possibility…
The observational evidence for the recent acceleration of the universe demonstrates that canonical theories of cosmology and particle physics are incomplete (or possibly incorrect) and that new physics is out there, waiting to be…