Monday, February 28, 2011

Superfluid Exists in the core of a neutron star

This is a wonderful discovery. A neutron star 11,000 light years far from us was observed cooling down extrodinarily fast (4% in the past 10 years), which has been deciphered as a signature of the existence of such superfluid. The pressure exerted by gravity on the core of a neutron star is huge and neutrons, which are fermions, were predicted to form boson-like pairs under such high pressure circumstances. Such pairs condense and move coherently and make a superfluid, which is frictionless. More neutrinoes shall be released, and hence more energy shall be taken away, resulting in the faster cooling rate, explain these authors. [http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/superfluid-neutron-star/]

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