Review of Multi-messenger observations of neutron rich matter. (arXiv:1212.6405v1 [nucl-th])

Review of Multi-messenger observations of neutron rich matter. (arXiv:1212.6405v1 [nucl-th]):
At very high densities, electrons react with protons to form neutron rich
matter. This material is central to many fundamental questions in nuclear
physics and astrophysics. Moreover, neutron rich matter is being studied with
an extraordinary variety of new tools such as the Facility for Rare Isotope
Beams (FRIB) and the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory
(LIGO). We describe the Lead Radius Experiment (PREX) that uses parity
violating electron scattering to measure the neutron radius of 208Pb. This has
important implications for neutron stars and their crusts. We discuss X-ray
observations of neutron star radii. These also have important implications for
neutron rich matter. Gravitational waves (GW) open a new window on neutron rich
matter. They come from sources such as neutron star mergers, rotating neutron
star mountains, and collective r-mode oscillations. Using large scale molecular
dynamics simulations, we find neutron star crust to be very strong. It can
support mountains on rotating neutron stars large enough to generate detectable
gravitational waves. Finally, neutrinos from core collapse supernovae (SN)
provide another, qualitatively different probe of neutron rich matter.
Neutrinos escape from the surface of last scattering known as the
neutrino-sphere. This is a low density warm gas of neutron rich matter.
Neutrino-sphere conditions can be simulated in the laboratory with heavy ion
collisions. Observations of neutrinos can probe nucleosyntheses in SN. We
believe that combing astronomical observations using photons, GW, and
neutrinos, with laboratory experiments on nuclei, heavy ion collisions, and
radioactive beams will fundamentally advance our knowledge of compact objects
in the heavens, the dense phases of QCD, the origin of the elements, and of
neutron rich matter.