Weird’ physics found in frictionless fluid inside neutron stars

[nec209]

EDMONTON — A University of Alberta astronomer and his team have uncovered “weird” physics inside a neutron star in the Milky Way Galaxy.

 

Craig Heinke and his colleagues have discovered the core of the Cassiopeia A neutron star — the remains of a supernova — contains a frictionless superfluid that seems to defy gravity, as well as a superconductor that keeps electricity flowing without ever losing energy.

 

Scientists had long suggested this “weird state of matter” might exist inside the cores of neutron stars, but there had been no direct evidence of it before, Heinke said Sunday.

 

 

 

Read more: http://www.edmontonjournal.com/technology/Weird+physics+found+frictionless+fluid+inside+neutron+stars/4356331/story.html#ixzz1FKPrdYCj

[ajb]

Is this thought to be some QCD state of matter? I recall being told that a colour superconducting phase of QCD exists and may be found in the cores of neutron starts. The news report is a bit vague on this.

Edited March 1, 2011 by ajb

[imatfaal]

The article doesn't mention superconductivity - but does mention cooper pair formation. Cooper pairs would lead to normal superconductivity wouldn't it?

[ajb]

The article doesn't mention superconductivity - but does mention cooper pair formation. Cooper pairs would lead to normal superconductivity wouldn't it?

 

 

Cooper pairs are when two fermions "act as one" to form a bosonic quasi-particle. This does not have to be two electrons. But yes, Cooper pairs are essential in standard superconductivity as well as the superfluidity of Helium 3.

[imatfaal]

Cooper pairs are when two fermions "act as one" to form a bosonic quasi-particle. This does not have to be two electrons. But yes, Cooper pairs are essential in standard superconductivity as well as the superfluidity of Helium 3.

 

Ah - that makes sense. As a very speculative follow up:

if you get massive photons in an electrical superconductor; do you, by analogy, get massive gluons in a colour superconductor?

[ajb]

if you get massive photons in an electrical superconductor; do you, by analogy, get massive gluons in a colour superconductor?

 

You are talking about the Ginzburg–Landau theory as an abelian Higgs model.

 

The colour superconductivity state breaks some the symmetries of the theory, so I imagine that this could manifest itself as a apparent mass for gluons. Really, you would have to do some hunting through the literature yourself. Let us know what you find.

 

EDIT:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_superconductivity states that gluons become massive.

Edited March 2, 2011 by ajb

[Greatest I am]

EDMONTON — A University of Alberta astronomer and his team have uncovered "weird" physics inside a neutron star in the Milky Way Galaxy.

 

Craig Heinke and his colleagues have discovered the core of the Cassiopeia A neutron star — the remains of a supernova — contains a frictionless superfluid that seems to defy gravity, as well as a superconductor that keeps electricity flowing without ever losing energy.

 

Scientists had long suggested this "weird state of matter" might exist inside the cores of neutron stars, but there had been no direct evidence of it before, Heinke said Sunday.

 

 

 

Read more: http://www.edmontonj...l#ixzz1FKPrdYCj

 

I did not see the actual temperature shown although they did say it was cooling faster than normal.

 

At absolute 0 matter does do strange things and I wonder if this is part of that strangeness.

 

Regards

DL

[ajb]

At absolute 0 matter does do strange things and I wonder if this is part of that strangeness.

 

Matter cannot get to absolute zero, only very close in lab conditions.

[imatfaal]

I did not see the actual temperature shown although they did say it was cooling faster than normal.

 

At absolute 0 matter does do strange things and I wonder if this is part of that strangeness.

 

Regards

DL

 

To DL

 

This is a cooling star - so it has a long way to go to zero kelvin (notleast that it cannot get there per ajb above). The article which I have linked in my first post says the surface temperature is estimated at 2 million kelvin. It is however displaying behaviour that we more normally associate with very cold matter in our laboratory conditions - but in this case it seems to be more todo with the enormous pressure and exotic nature of the stars matter.

 

To AJB

 

I never thought to try wikipedia - thanks will read up.

Edited March 4, 2011 by imatfaal

[DrRocket]

Cooper pairs are when two fermions "act as one" to form a bosonic quasi-particle. This does not have to be two electrons. But yes, Cooper pairs are essential in standard superconductivity as well as the superfluidity of Helium 3.

 

But it is rather difficult to have superconductivity (electrical) unless there are electrons around, so I think the reporter misinterpreted the significance of the Cooper pairs reported by the scientists.

[ajb]

But it is rather difficult to have superconductivity (electrical) unless there are electrons around...

 

Quarks in the right conditions have a small attractive force between them, just as electrons can. They can form Cooper pairs, theses are bosons and so can form a Bose-Einstein condensate. The ground state of the quark matter becomes colour superconducting.

 

This is almost identical to the BCF theory of electrical superconductivity. The only difference really being the 3 quark flavours and the non-abelian nature of the colour charges. All the basic ideas are the same.

 

 

...so I think the reporter misinterpreted the significance of the Cooper pairs reported by the scientists.

 

Probably so.

 

There are a few reviews of colour superconductivity on the arXiv. I am far from an expert in this, so I would advice anyone interested to hunt down the reviews.

 

As an aside: David Bailin and Alexander Love were probably one of the first in the West to discover colour superconductivity. David Bailin is a professor at Sussex, I remember him well from when I was there during my MSc.

Edited March 4, 2011 by ajb

[Greatest I am]

Matter cannot get to absolute zero, only very close in lab conditions.

 

Yes and starts to act in weird ways.

 

Here is the latest I have found just in case you are building a library.

 

 

Regards

DL