The Physics & Astronomy Colloquium Series presents Mia Kumamoto of University of California, Berkeley, discussing "Neutron stars - Connections Between the Laboratory and the Cosmos" on Feburary 6.

Abstract: Neutron stars are one possible endpoint in the life of a massive star and a natural laboratory for understanding physics at the highest densities.  In spite of sixty years of observations ranging from gamma rays to radio and the more recent detection of gravitational waves from merging neutron star binaries, the composition of the inner core remains a mystery.  If we can overcome these difficulties, however, dense matter is an excellent probe of fundamental symmetries, neutrinos, and dark matter (among other things), shedding indirect light on some of the most pressing open questions in modern physics. 

I will give an overview of neutron star physics, what we know and how we know it, and present past and ongoing research into the behavior of neutrinos in a neutron star, from its birth in a supernova until its death in a binary merger.