Jean Macher and Jürgen Schaffner-Bielich 2005 Eur. J. Phys. 26 341 doi:10.1088/0143-0807/26/3/003
Jean Macher1,2 and Jürgen Schaffner-Bielich2
Show affiliationsWe report on a three-month research project for undergraduate students about the mass–radius relation of compact stars. The equation of state used is constrained at low densities by well-established equations of state of the nuclear phase (the solid crust) and then extended to higher densities with a phenomenological, parametric approach. A first-order phase transition from hadronic matter to a phase of higher density, assumed to be quark matter, is studied in addition. The mass–radius relation is obtained by solving numerically the Tolman–Oppenheimer–Volkoff equation. We derive some conditions for the existence of a third family of compact stars in the form of the equation of state and its different global properties.
01.40.Fk Physics education research (cognition, problem solving, etc.)
97.10.Cv Stellar structure, interiors, evolution, nucleosynthesis, ages
Issue 3 (May 2005)
Received 17 November 2004, in final form 19 January 2005
Published 7 March 2005
Jean Macher and Jürgen Schaffner-Bielich 2005 Eur. J. Phys. 26 341
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