Due to their enormous density, compact stars act as a laboratory for fundamental nuclear and particle physics. We will discuss microscopic models and predictions and compare them with astrophysical observations. Besides dense nuclear matter (neutron stars) we will also discuss quark matter (hybrid stars, quark stars), and learn about phenomenological models as well as about basic properties of Quantun Chromodynamics (QCD).
Equation of state for nuclear and quark matter, mass/radius relation for a compact star; strange quark matter hypothesis; Walecka model for nuclear matter; chiral symmetry breaking in QCD, kaon condensation in nuclear matter; color superconductivity (color-flavor locking); cooling behavior of a compact star, neutrino emissivity
A. Schmitt, Dense matter in compact stars - a pedagogical introduction, http://arxiv.org/abs/1001.3294
