Astrophysics Seminar

Neutron stars offer a unique opportunity to study matter under some of the most extreme conditions in the universe—densities exceeding those in atomic nuclei and temperatures spanning a wide dynamic range. Understanding their internal structure depends critically on the equation of state (EOS), which describes how pressure relates to density and temperature.

In this talk, I will present recent progress in constraining the cold EOS using multimessenger observations, including gravitational waves from binary neutron star mergers, electromagnetic observations, and theoretical inputs from nuclear physics. These diverse observations are beginning to narrow down the possible models of dense matter.

In the second part, I will turn to the role of the thermal EOS in simulations of neutron star mergers. While the cold EOS governs equilibrium structure, the merger dynamics are sensitive to thermal effects that arise in the high-temperature, rapidly evolving post-merger environment. I will show how different treatments of thermal physics influence the evolution of the remnant and the associated gravitational wave signal.

Together, these observational and computational perspectives are helping to reveal the microphysics of dense matter, with implications for nuclear physics, astrophysics, and gravitational wave astronomy.