Physics Commons^™

Transport In Neutron Star Mergers, Steven Patrick Harris

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Neutron star mergers are the only situation in nature in which we find matter compressed to several times nuclear saturation density and temperatures of several tens of MeV. By observing and numerically simulating neutron star mergers, we can learn about the nature of matter at high temperatures and densities. Neutron star merger simulations evolve Einstein's equations of general relativity coupled to the equations of relativistic hydrodynamics along with a nuclear equation of state, which describes the neutron star matter. Many simulations also take into account neutrino transport and electrodynamics. The purpose of this thesis is to see whether other physical …