Astronomy Tea Talks at Caltech

'New Constraints on Neutron Stars: A Compact Key to Unlock Galactic Mysteries'

It's been more than 40 years since the discovery of the first pulsar.
Since then, these objects have been used as unique cosmic yardsticks
by which we continue to test a variety of exotic physics and astronomical
phenomena. While we have reached a remarkable precision in pulsar
observations, many aspects of our theoretical understanding regarding
these objects are still in their infancy. In this talk, I will describe
alternative multidisciplinary approaches which we can use to get new
insights into a wide range of neutron star properties including details
of their evolution, ages, magnetic fields, initial spin periods and masses.
I will then discuss how we can use these new constraints to get a variety
of interesting science from millisecond pulsars on a broader scale.