Abstract Details

Name: Manjari Bagchi
Affiliation: The Institute of Mathematical Sciences
Conference ID: ASI2020_481
Title : The most fascinating member of the compact object family: neutron stars as the celestial laboratoy to probe fundamental physics
Authors and Co-Authors :
Abstract Type :
Abstract Category : Plenary
Abstract : White-dwarfs, black-holes and neutron stars are the three types of stellar remnants forming the class of compact objects. In the present talk, after giving a brief overview of the compact object family, I will concentrate on neutron stars. The electromagnetic emission of neutron stars can be powered by accretion, rotation, magnetism and sometimes thermal. Although each of these types reveals different properties of neutron stars, the rotation powered neutron stars or the radio pulsars have the most profound properties that help us probe various aspects of fundamental physics. I will describe how the study of radio pulsars helps us understand the properties of matter inside the neutron stars, test predictions of general relativity, understand the last stages of stellar evolution, and many more. Binary radio pulsars even bear the imprint of the environments, especially when located in dense environments like globular clusters. In 1979, the first detection of gravitational waves (although indirectly) was from the study of a binary radio pulsar. Moreover, in 2017, the direct detection of the gravitational waves emitted from the merger of two inspiralling neutron stars initiated a new area of gravitational-wave astronomy. After reviewing all these points, I will become more futuristic. Long duration timing studies of an ensemble of stable millisecond radio pulsars will likely enable humankind to detect low-frequency (nano-Hz) gravitational waves very soon. I will describe this international effort and the role of India in this. Finally, I would like to emphasize the fact that the future of neutron star astronomy seems to be very bright. SKA will most likely revolutionize the field of neutron star astronomy through lots of exotic discoveries like pulsars orbiting the supermassive black hole at the centre of our Galaxy or even pulsars in another galaxy.