Neutron Stars: Where Extreme Gravity Meets Extreme Matter - Katerina Chatziioannou - 05/13/2022

What are neutron stars made of? How are these objects truly unlike any other matter in the universe? Join us to learn these answers and more with the esteemed Professor Katerina Chatziioannou! Timestamps below:

00:00 Announcements
03:05 Intro to Neutron Stars Presentation
03:40 Neutron Stars Presentation
37:00 Neutron Stars Q&A
37:19 When do we expect the next neutron star merger to occur?
38:47 Is it possible for neutron stars to collide and form a black hole?
40:19 While merging, can black holes eject radiation or matter?
42:36 How are black hole mergers different from when neutron stars merge?
44:33 Can neutron stars cool enough to support life on their surfaces?
46:17 Dead time setting up Q&A Panel
52:21 Intro to Q&A Panel
58:00 What discoveries will the James Webb Space Telescope make?
1:00:32 Do we know how many neutron stars are in the universe relative to black holes?
1:02:33 How was the Event Horizon Telescope focused to ensure it was looking at Sgr A*?
1:05:05 Have we witnessed a new star "ignite"?
1:08:40 Can we detect black holes that lack an accretion disk? How?
1:11:09 Are the cores of stars related to a Bose-Einstein Condensate?
1:14:04 Is there a "maximum mass" for a neutron star?
1:16:32 Does a planet merging with a star generate gravitational waves?
1:19:49 Can we use the Event Horizon Telescope to image a neutron star?
1:21:38 Concluding Remarks

Abstract:
Neutron stars are matter’s last stand in the battle against total collapse under the overwhelming force of gravity. With masses comparable to that of our Sun yet smaller in size than the island of Manhattan, neutron star interiors drive matter to extreme conditions with densities exceeding those found in the nuclei of atoms. These extreme conditions can only be described with our most advanced physics theories: Quantum Chromodynamics and General Relativity. At the same time, neutron stars are at the heart of some of the most energetic astronomical events we observe, from supernova explosions to collisions of neutron stars and black holes. I will describe what neutron stars are, what we know about them, and what we do not know but attempt to learn using collisions of neutron stars and black holes observed with gravitational waves.

Speaker:
Dr. Katerina Chatziioannou is an Assistant Professor of Physics at Caltech, where she focuses her research on black holes, neutron stars, and extreme tests of gravity. She uses observations of gravitational waves, ripples in spacetime itself, to study the properties of black holes and neutron stars. Dr. Chatziioannou is particularly interested in the properties of neutron stars and the states of matter in their extremely dense cores.

[adamphilip]

As others have said audio really detracts from the content. I noticed you mentioned difficulties with optimising for in person and online audio so I thought I'd offer a suggestion. A usb mixer can be a relatively easy and cheap solution if you need to connect one source to a computer and another sound system and would allow the use of much higher quality XLR microphones. A reasonably good setup including a low end microphone for a single source channel can be purchased for under $100 or possibly less if bought used.

[CaltechAstro]

Hey everyone. As a number of people have written here, the audio quality is not the best on this video as we returned to our first in-person event in two years. Sorry about that! Thanks to some helpful suggestions, I'm going to try to correct this for our future videos.

[waltersistrunk]

I’ll make another comment. As a lifelong graphic designer, the images are fantastic, very well done. You don’t have to be an artist to see this of course. We’re all whining about the bad audio, so I thought it would be time to say the visuals are a pleasure to see and seem to support the message quite well.

[sinukus]

Seriously, I love this lecture series, if you need help with the audio please reach out. I

I am fairly local.

I don’t accept that a free lecture should have no quality boundaries.

I see this all the time now thar many EDU facilities go online and open.

[helicopter_traffic]

Thank you for posting this!! I was gonna mention the audio but I see others have gotten there. I’m gonna give it a shot anyways and appreciate this free of charge content on really fascinating topics from brilliant minds. It’s so cool that we get access to such fascinating work for free. Worth repeating often. Thanks for your effort and consideration, especially if you’ve got to balance these uploads with a cal tech workload!!

[waltersistrunk]

This lack of quality presentation is not surprising. The lecture is intended for a classroom, not YouTube. It simply has to be done differently. If one planned ahead a little, it would be possible with capable help to accomplish both. An unfortunate oversight by otherwise average people.

[jeffreylanz]

Regarding life on a neutron star, would such life, if it could exist, evolve much faster given that everything is happening on the nuclear scale verses atomic?

[amirshay]

Great lecture, but the audio is terrible. Please next time get the speaker to wear the microphone, or speak into a hand held microphone or just get a professional sound man/woman to set the sound recording up.

[jonnywatts]

What's that weird thing on his face?