Weinberg Institute Seminar with Francois Foucart

Abstract: The collision of extremely dense objects such as neutron stars and black holes provides us with a remarkable laboratory to study the laws of physics in extreme environment. Through the study of merging neutron stars, we learn about gravity, the properties of dense matter, the formation of heavy nuclei (gold, platinum, uranium) and neutrino physics. In this talk, I will review the physical processes at play in neutron star mergers and discuss what numerical simulations of colliding neutron stars tell us about the ways in which these systems can be used to better understand cold nuclear matter and astrophysical nucleosynthesis.