Princeton University Gravity Initiative Spring Seminar Series

Abstract: Compact stars, such as neutron stars or white dwarfs, often collide with bigger, non-degenerate stars. In this interaction, the NS captures copious amounts of matter that flows inwards. The density of the gas in this scenario is so high that photons remain trapped in it throughout the entire accretion process. Matter has no way of releasing energy until the pressure increases enough to ignite neutrino emission. We may then ask: how much mass and angular momentum is accreted onto the compact object? Can the accreted gas induce the collapse into a black hole? These are longstanding questions dating back to Thorne and Zytkow (1977). In this talk, I will present new ab initio simulations and analytical models of hot magnetized flows onto neutron stars and some of their astrophysical consequences.