Physical Society Colloquium
Interview for Faculty Position
From Einstein to Fermi:
Looking at the grandest and
finest in the Universe
Oleg Gnedin
Space Telescope Science Institute
The large-scale and small-scale phenomena in astrophysics are often closely
interrelated. I will show how our current knowledge of cosmology can be
applied to study the formation of massive globular star cluster, which in
turn lead to the formation of compact stellar binaries harboring ultradense
neutron stars. A paradigm shift in our understanding of star clusters and
their role in galaxy formation has been brought by the discoveries of young
star clusters with the HST, and put on physical grounds by the
state-of-the-art numerical simulations. Following the cluster formation, the
dynamical processes within globular clusters drive the central core to such a
high density that stellar interactions become important. Relativistic
binaries, in which a neutron star accretes matter from a companion star,
manifest themselves as bright X-rays sources. The study of thermal emission
from the isolated and accreting neutron stars offers us a glimpse of the
physics of ultradense matter unreachable in the laboratory: high-temperature
superfluidity, quantizing magnetic fields, strange hyperons and bare quarks.
Tuesday, February 10th 2004, 16:00
Ernest Rutherford Physics Building, R.E. Bell Conference Room (room 103)
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