2024-10-07 - 2024-10-11
Kenji Fukushima
University of Tokyo
Compact stars provide us with rich information about extreme environments and the neutron star among them is especially interesting in research of nuclear physics. In nuclear theory various possibilities about exotic states of dense matter have been proposed including a phase transition from nuclear to quark matter. Recently, there are also intensive discussions about whether such a phase transition exists or only a smooth crossover occurs. After all, the validity of theoretical considerations should be tested based on experimental data. Fortunately, more and more observational data is expected in the near future. In this lecture, I will make pedagogical introductions to ideas of theoretical speculations about nuclear/quark matter properties and explain how such scenarios would give impact to physics of neutron stars and also hypothetical quark stars.
