Exotic stars may mimic big bang

[n2doc]

17:21 04 January 2010 by David Shiga
A new class of star may recreate the conditions of the big bang in its incredibly dense core.

Pack matter tightly enough and gravity will cause it to implode into a black hole. Neutron stars were once thought to be the densest form of matter that could resist such a collapse. More recently, physicists have argued that some supernovae may leave behind even denser quark stars, in which neutrons dissolve into their constituent quarks.

Now, a study led by De-Chang Dai of the State University of New York in Buffalo says the deaths of very massive stars may lead to "electroweak" stars that creep even closer to the black hole limit (arxiv.org/abs/0912.0520).

The cores of these stellar corpses can reach the same density as that of the universe 10-10 seconds after the big bang. At that point, the distinction between the electromagnetic and weak nuclear forces breaks down. This allows quarks to turn into ghostly particles called neutrinos, releasing energy that props up the star against further collapse. The reactions would take place in an apple-sized region in the core weighing about two Earths.


http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18334-exotic-stars-may-mimic-big-bang.html

[hedgehog]

1. Someone at New Scientist had fun with that headline.

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. Good to see it was not only me who went there.....

[redwitch]

3. uh huh.

me too. :hi:

[MineralMan]

4. Top or Bottom Quarks?

'Tis a puzzlement.

Quarks are strange, indeed. Quarks, or at least some of them, lead charmed lives. Life's up and down some of the time, and you never know who's the top and who's the bottom most of the time.

[TheMadMonk]

5. I'm getting a hadron just thinking about it. nt

[AlecBGreen]

6. I think I just popped a boson