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Letter
| Open Access
Evidence for quark-matter cores in massive neutron stars
The cores of neutron stars could be made of hadronic matter or quark matter. By combining first-principles calculations with observational data, evidence for the presence of quark matter in neutron star cores is found.
- Eemeli Annala
- , Tyler Gorda
- & Aleksi Vuorinen
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News & Views |
Beta decay gets the ab initio treatment
One of the fundamental radioactive decay modes of nuclei is β decay. Now, nuclear theorists have used first-principles simulations to explain nuclear β decay properties across a range of light- to medium-mass isotopes, up to 100Sn.
- Arnau Rios
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Letter |
Discrepancy between experimental and theoretical β-decay rates resolved from first principles
The difference between the β-decay rate predicted for free neutrons and that measured in real nuclei is explained by first-principles calculations to arise from strong correlations and the weak-force coupling between nucleons.
- P. Gysbers
- , G. Hagen
- & K. A. Wendt
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News & Views |
Deep-sea diving for stellar debris
Deep-sea sediments reveal the production sites of the heaviest chemical elements in the Universe to be neutron star mergers — rare events that eject large amounts of mass — and not core-collapse supernovae.
- Friedrich-Karl Thielemann
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Letter |
Rotational evolution of young pulsars due to superfluid decoupling
The so-called braking index calculated for the spin-down of rotating neutron stars, or pulsars, doesn’t tally well with observations. But a model accounting for a changing moment of inertia, as an increasing fraction of the stellar core becomes superfluid, can explain the rotational evolution of young pulsars.
- Wynn C. G. Ho
- & Nils Andersson
Mass measurements show slowdown of rapid proton capture process at waiting-point nucleus 64Ge