Doing Physics in the Cores of Globular Star Clusters

在球状星团的核心进行物理学研究

• 批准号: RGPIN-2016-03665
• 负责人: Richer, Harvey
• 金额: $ 5.39万
• 依托单位: University of British Columbia
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2017-01-01 至 2018-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=633392
• 关键词: Doing; Physics; Cores; Globular; Star

Stars up to about eight times the mass of our Sun end their lives as white dwarf stars (WDs). These stars have completed their nuclear evolution, converting their core of hydrogen into helium and then into carbon and oxygen. The star then contracts until the pressure of its electrons (the quantum mechanical electron degeneracy pressure) becomes high enough for the star to reach a balance between gravity (that wants to contract it) and pressure (that wants to expand it). The end point of this process is a star about half the mass of the Sun and about the radius of the Earth. The WD has depleted its potential source of nuclear fuel by this time, so it simply radiates its stored thermal energy out into space and cools slowly and predictably with time - WDS are good clocks. This provides a physical laboratory with conditions that cannot be reproduced on Earth; temperature about 100 million degrees, density of order of 1 million times that of water and a precise clock to boot. With this almost unique laboratory, it is possible to carry out exotic physical experiments.

如白矮星（WDS），星星大约是我们太阳弥撒的八倍。这些恒星已经完成了核的演化，将氢的核心转化为氦，然后转化为碳和氧气。然后，恒星会收缩，直到其电子的压力（量子机械电子退化压力）变得足够高，以使恒星在重力（想要收缩）和压力（想要扩大）之间达到平衡。该过程的终点是一颗恒星，大约是太阳的一半，大约是地球的半径。 WD这次已经耗尽了其潜在的核燃料来源，因此它只是将其存储的热能辐射到太空中，并随时间缓慢而可以预测地冷却 - WDS是好时钟。这为实验室提供了无法在地球上复制的条件。温度约为1亿度，水的密度约为水的100万倍，并且要启动的精确时钟。有了这个几乎独特的实验室，可以进行异国情调的物理实验。