Evolution of a Neutron Star from Its Birth to Old Age

Nuclear phase transition and thermodynamic instabilities in dense nuclear matter

We study the presence of thermodynamic instabilities in a nuclear medium at finite temperature and density where nuclear phase transitions can take place. Such a phase transition is characterized by pure hadronic matter with both mechanical instability (fluctuations on the baryon density) that by chemical-diffusive instability (fluctuations on the electric charge concentration). Similarly to the liquid-gas phase transition, the nucleonic and the Δ-matter phase have a different isospin density in the mixed phase. In the liquid-gas phase transition, the process of producing a larger neutron excess in the gas phase is referred to as isospin fractionation. A similar effects can occur in the nucleon-Δ matter phase transition due essentially to a Δ- excess in the Δ-matter phase in asymmetric nuclear matter. In this context we also discuss the relevance of Δ-isobar and hyperon degrees of freedom in the bulk properties of the protoneutron stars at fixed entropy per baryon, in the presence and in the absence of trapped neutrinos.

Rotating stars in relativity

Rotating relativistic stars have been studied extensively in recent years, both theoretically and observationally, because of the information they might yield about the equation of state of matter at extremely high densities and because they are considered to be promising sources of gravitational waves. The latest theoretical understanding of rotating stars in relativity is reviewed in this updated article. The sections on equilibrium properties and on nonaxisymmetric oscillations and instabilities in f-modes and r-modes have been updated. Several new sections have been added on equilibria in modified theories of gravity, approximate universal relationships, the one-arm spiral instability, on analytic solutions for the exterior spacetime, rotating stars in LMXBs, rotating strange stars, and on rotating stars in numerical relativity including both hydrodynamic and magnetohydrodynamic studies of these objects.