Friday, October 28, 2011
Hall 1-2 (San Jose Convention Center)
Neutron stars are dense, neutron-packed remnants of massive stars that have exploded as supernovae. They are typically about 20 kilometers across and spin rapidly, often making many hundred rotations per second. Currently around 2000 neutron stars are known, and the discovery rate of new ones is high because of unprecedented advances in observational astrophysics. One of the most bizarre neutron stars ever observed is PSR J1614-2230, which was discovered just a year ago. This object performs over 300 rotations per second about its axis and has the highest mass of any known neutron star. These features make PSR J1614-2230 a superb astrophysical laboratory for a broad range of physical studies. The results we obtained from such studies will be presented. In particular, constraints on the properties (radius, moment of inertia, gravitational redshift, density profile, core composition) of this neutron star as well as on the equation of state of ultra-dense matter are established. Such constraints are of key importance for the interpretation of thousands of compact stellar objects expected to be discovered with new astrophysical instruments such as the square kilometer Array (skA) or IXO (formerly Constellation X).