Theoretical and Numerical Studies of Astrophysical Quark Matter: Implications to Nuclear and Explosive Astrophysics

天体物理夸克物质的理论和数值研究：对核和爆炸天体物理学的影响

• 批准号: RGPIN-2018-04232
• 负责人: Ouyed, Rachid
• 金额: $ 2.99万
• 依托单位: University of Calgary
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2019-01-01 至 2020-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=688388
• 关键词: Theoretical; Numerical; Studies; Astrophysical; Quark; Theoretical; Numerical; Studies; Astrophysical; Quark

The search for quark matter and quark stars in the Universe: A longstanding aim of natural science is to understand the fundamental constituents of matter. Quarks and Gluons are the building blocks of the ordinary matter composed of neutrons and protons, and ordinarily remain hidden from us (i.e. they are trapped) inside protons and neutrons, requiring extreme temperature or pressure to liberate them. But nature might just do that in the ultra-dense cores of neutron stars offering us a natural laboratory to study how nuclei-free quarks can form. We developed the BURN-UD code (a first if its kind in the world) which captures the details of how neutrons inside neutron stars turn into quarks as they are squeezed by the force of gravity. We discovered that this transition can be explosive and converts the Neutron star to a Quark star (the Quark-Nova) releasing at least 10 times more energy than the most energetic Supernovae if harnessed this could be transformative to astrophysics with unique, neutrino and photon, signatures. We plan to search carefully for these signatures and improve our treatment of the physics of the explosion. Understanding how quarks can be freed from inside neutrons will advance our knowledge of matter at extreme conditions which could provide guidance for a new kind of experiments in Canada that could probe quark matter.****** The origin of heavy elements: The origin of the elements that make up our world is one of the oldest most fundamental scientific questions. Elements, including the carbon in our bodies and the iron that make up most of Earth, have been created by nuclear reactions in stars. However, the origin of elements beyond iron is still a mystery. They are attributed to a process called the r-process (rapid neutron capture process) which consists of seed nuclei (iron) exposed to a rich source of neutrons and ``gobbling up” as many of these neutrons as they can, yielding heavier elements. However, the site of the r-process is not known but Supernovae and colliding neutron stars are prime suspects since they produce a lots of neutrons and iron. A serious challenge is the fact that the nuclear processes governing these reactions are not well known and the properties of the extremely neutron-rich nuclei themselves are very hard to measure in laboratories. My research focuses on creating a software (a “sand-box”) for Canadian nuclear astrophysicists to simulate different astrophysical r-process sites while taking into account the uncertainties inherent to the underlying nuclear physics. Once these uncertainties are filtered out, THE astrophysical site for r-process can then be isolated. Knowing the exact site will have serious implications to the chemical evolution of the Universe. It will give us vital information about the properties of neutron-rich nuclei with direct bearing on many experiments being pursued at TRIUMF (Canada's national laboratory for particle and nuclear physics, Vancouver). **

宇宙中寻找夸克物质和夸克之星的搜索：自然科学的一个长期目的是了解物质的基本构成。夸克和胶子是由中子和质子组成的普通物质的基础，通常在质子和中子内隐藏我们（即它们被困在）中，需要极高的温度或压力来解放它们。但是自然可能只是在中子恒星的超密集岩心中做到这一点，从而为我们提供了一个自然实验室，以研究无核夸克的形成。我们开发了Burn-ud代码（第一个（如果是世界），则捕获了中子恒星内中子在被重力挤压时如何变成夸克的细节。我们发现，这种过渡可能具有爆炸性，并将中子星转换为夸克恒星（夸克 - 诺瓦），其能量至少比最大能量的能量比最大的能量超过10倍，如果利用这可能会转化为具有独特的神经元和照片的天体物理学。我们计划仔细搜索这些特征，并改善对爆炸物理学的处理。了解如何从内部中子中解放出夸克将在极端条件下提高我们对物质的了解，这可以为加拿大的一种新实验提供指导，这些实验可能会探测夸克。元素，包括我们体内的碳和构成地球大部分地区的铁的元素是由恒星中的核反应创造的。但是，铁之外的元素的起源仍然是一个谜。它们归因于一个称为R-Process（快速中子捕获过程）的过程，该过程由种子核（铁）组成，暴露于众多中子和``尽可能多的中子''和``吞噬了''的过程中，产生了较重的元素。但是，较重的元素是不知道的，但毫无疑问的是，毫无疑问的是，毫无疑问的是，它们是一定的，因为它们是富有的，因为它们是富有的，因为它们是偶然的，因为它们是偶然的，因为他们是偶然的。管理这些反应的核过程并不清楚，我的研究很难衡量，我的研究很难为加拿大的核天体物理学家创建一个软件（一个“砂盒”），以模拟不同的天文学Rocess，同时考虑了这些不认真的网站，以实现这些核心的核心范围。然后可以孤立。它将为我们提供有关中子丰富的核里特性的重要信息，直接涉及在Triumf（加拿大国家粒子和核物理学，温哥华）进行的许多实验。 **