Neutron stars for undergraduates

Introduction......Page 2
Newtonian Formulation......Page 4
General Relativistic Corrections......Page 6
A Few Facts......Page 7
Fermi Gas Model for Electrons......Page 8
The Structure Equations for a Polytrope......Page 11
Integrating the Polytrope Numerically......Page 12
The Relativistic Case kF me......Page 13
The Non-Relativistic Case, kF me......Page 16
The Non-Relativistic Case, kF mn......Page 18
The Relativistic Case, kF mn......Page 19
The Fermi Gas EoS for Arbitrary Relativity......Page 20
Why Is There a Maximum Mass?......Page 22
Neutron Stars with Protons and Electrons, Fermi Gas EoS......Page 24
Symmetric Nuclear Matter......Page 26
Non-Symmetric Nuclear Matter......Page 30
Does the Speed of Sound Exceed That of Light?......Page 33
Pure Neutron Star with Nuclear Interactions......Page 35
What About a Cosmological Constant?......Page 36
Acknowledgments......Page 37
References......Page 38