Description du projet
À la recherche des étoiles à neutrons les plus massives parmi les «araignées»
Les pulsars millisecondes binaires compacts (CBMSP) forment un groupe d’étoiles à neutrons en rotation rapide, baptisées «araignées», dont les rangs ne cessent de gonfler et au sein duquel on s’attend potentiellement à trouver les pulsars les plus massifs. La découverte d’étoiles à neutrons supermassives aurait de profondes implications en physique nucléaire, et en ce qui concerne le sort des supernovae et le signal des ondes gravitationnelles provenant des fusions d’étoiles à neutrons. Les araignées offrent un moyen unique de sonder le vent le plus interne du pulsar et un site rapproché pour l’accélération des particules. Par ailleurs, des découvertes récentes permettent d’étudier des phénomènes astrophysiques fondamentaux à partir des CBMSP. Le projet LOVE NEST, financé par l’UE, a l’ambition de repérer les étoiles à neutrons les plus massives et de comprendre les interactions entre les flux d’accrétion, les vents des pulsars et les magnétosphères des étoiles à neutrons. Les résultats de LOVE NEST auront un impact significatif sur l’astronomie des ondes gravitationnelles, la physique nucléaire, l’astrophysique et la physique des astroparticules.
Objectif
"The astrophysics field of compact binary millisecond pulsars is thriving. This growing class of rapidly spinning neutron stars – also known as ""spiders""– constitutes the most promising place to find massive pulsars. Super-massive neutron stars, with a mass significantly higher than two Solar masses, cannot contain exotic particles. Finding such stars would have profound implications for nuclear physics. The maximum neutron star mass has also important consequences for the fate of supernovae and the gravitational wave signal from neutron star mergers. In addition, spiders offer a unique probe of the pulsar's innermost wind and a nearby site for particle acceleration. The past years have seen exciting discoveries in this field, in which I have been closely involved. As a result, a new way has opened up to study fundamental astrophysical phenomena from compact binary millisecond pulsars.
The purpose of this project is to find the most massive neutron stars and to understand the interaction between accretion flows, pulsar winds and neutron star magnetospheres. LOVE-NEST will first uncover a hidden population of millisecond pulsars, with a targeted search of gamma-ray candidate sources. We will then measure accurately the masses of the heaviest pulsars, using a novel technique that we have recently established. We will also investigate nearby spiders as potential sources of cosmic rays and astrophysical neutrinos, placing unprecedented constraints on particle acceleration in relativistic pulsar wind shocks.
LOVE-NEST will have a strong impact on gravitational wave astronomy, nuclear physics, astrophysics and astro-particle physics. As a leader in the field, and having developed a new method to measure pulsar masses, I am in an excellent position to achieve these ambitious goals."
Champ scientifique
- natural sciencesphysical sciencestheoretical physicsparticle physicsneutrinos
- natural sciencesphysical sciencesastronomyobservational astronomygravitational waves
- natural sciencesphysical sciencesastronomystellar astronomyneutron stars
- natural sciencesphysical sciencesnuclear physics
- natural sciencesphysical sciencesastronomyastrophysics
Mots‑clés
Programme(s)
Régime de financement
ERC-COG - Consolidator GrantInstitution d’accueil
7491 Trondheim
Norvège