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Michael K. Rulison
(http://sites.oglethorpe.
edu/mrulison/)
Professor of Physics

Chapter 22: Condensed Objects

Neutron Stars:
The idea of a neutron star was developed in 1939 when calculations were made of a star that was
composed solely of degenerate neutrons. If the mass of a normal star were squeezed into a small
enough volume, the protons and electrons would be forced to combine to form neutrons. For example,
a star of 0.7 solar masses would produce a neutron star that was only 10 km in radius. Even if this
object had a surface temperature of 50,000 K, it has such as small radius that its total luminosity would
be a million times fainter than the Sun.

As with white dwarfs, neutron stars have an inverse relationship between mass and radius. As a
neutron increases in mass, its radius gets smaller. Their extremely small size implies that they rotate
quickly, according to the conservation of angular momentum.
 (http://sites.oglethorpe.edu/mrulison/files/2016/07/prob_17-

1fjb6cq.gif)

The interior of a neutron star is hard to calculate since the physics covers a new realm not testable in
our laboratories. Models suggest that neutrons packed into such a dense configuration becomes a
superfluid sea (see end of chapter). Normally superfluids, such as liquid helium, occur at very low
temperatures. But that normal matter has an electric charge (positive for the protons, negative for the
electrons). A dense mixture of neutrons (with zero electric charge) can become a friction-free
superfluid at high temperatures.

(http://sites.oglethorpe.edu/mrulison/files/2016/07/neutron_star_interior-1u4w4mu.gif)

The interior of a neutron star will consist of a large core of mostly neutrons with a small number of
superconducting protons(see end of chapter). Again, normally associated with low temperatures,
superconducting protons, combined with the high rotation speeds of the neutron star, produce a
dynamo effect(see end of chapter) similar to what creates the Earths magnetic field. Surrounding the
core is a neutron mantle, then a iron-rich crust.

Pulsars:
Every star has a magnetic field, usually a very weak one. However, when a stellar core is compressed
into a neutron star during a supernova explosion, the weak magnetic field is also compressed. As the
field lines squeeze together, the magnetic field becomes very powerful. A powerful magnetic field,
combined with the rapid rotation, will produce strong electric currents on the surface of the neutron
star.
Loose protons and electrons near the surface of the neutron star will be sweep up and stream along the
magnetic field lines towards the north and south magnetic poles of the neutron star. The magnetic axis
of the neutron star does not necessarily have to be aligned with the rotation axis (like the Earth), they
can be inclined from each other as shown below.

(http://sites.oglethorpe.edu/mrulison/files/2016/07/star_radiation-2fn4ega.jpg)

The rotating neutron star has two sources of radiation: 1) non-thermal synchrotron radiation(see end
of chapter)emitted from particles trapped in the magnetic field of the neutron star, and 2) thermal
radiation from particles colliding with the neutron star surface at the magnetic poles. The thermal
component contains x-rays, optical and radio radiation since the protons smashing into the surface of
the neutron star at extremely high velocities. Given the geometry of the hotspots at the magnetic poles,
the energy from the hotspots sweeps out into space like a lighthouse. Only when the Earth lies along
the axis of the neutron star is the energy detected as a series of pulses, and the object is called a pulsar
(see end of chapter).

Pulsars were discovered by accident in 1967 during a search for distant sources of radio radiation. A
special telescope had been constructed to look at short timescales of radio waves. One object displayed
extremely evenly spaced pulses of radiation. The period was 1.337 seconds with an accuracy of 1 part
in 10 million. A typical pulsar signature is shown below.

(http://sites.oglethorpe.edu/mrulison/files/2016/07/pulsar-1yxi8x1.gif)
Notice that the shape of the pulses is similar from high energy photons down to the low energy radio
photons. This indicates that the source of the radiation, over a range of wavelengths, is from the same
region on the neutron star.

The fact that the pulses of radiation are so sharp and regular allows an astronomer to make very
accurate measurements of the period of the pulses. When this is done, it is found that pulsars are
slowing down with time. The rapidly changing magnetic field produces some of the energy that is
beamed outward. Therefore, each pulse takes rotational energy from the neutron star and sends it into
space, i.e. the neutron star loses rotational energy and slows down. Typical changes are about 10-15
seconds per rotation. In other words, a neutron star with a rotation of 1 second will be slowed to 2
seconds in about 30 million years. Thus, the age of a pulsar is determined by its current rotation speed.
Old pulsars are rotating slowly, young ones fast.

Pulsars also display sudden speed-ups in their rotation rates in sharp glitches of their timing curves.
The surface gravity of a neutron star is millions of times greater than the surface gravity of the Earth.
The tremendous weight causes the crust to shift and contract suddenly, a starquake. The contraction,
even though only a 1 mm in depth, causes a resulting starquake that is about a billion times more
powerful than any earthquake on the Earth. This is visible in the rotation rate since it can be measured
with a high degree of accuracy.

(http://sites.oglethorpe.edu/mrulison/files/2016/07/starquake-

19funng.gif)

Accretion Disks:
If a supernova occurs in a binary system, the companion star will survive the blast (although it will lose
some of its outer layers). A neutron star will be left in orbit around the secondary star. As the
companion star evolves to become a red giant, its envelope will expand beyond the Roche limit and gas
will spiral onto the neutron star.

The gas flowing towards the neutron star forms a thick disk of orbiting material called an accretion
disk. Since the infalling gas retains the direction of orbital motion of the companion, the stream of
material forms a rotating disk. Friction(see end of chapter)between the gas in neighboring orbits
cause the gas to spiral inward until it hits the surface of the neutron star. As the spiraling gas moves
inward, gravitational energy is released in the form of heat into the accretion disk.
 (http://sites.oglethorpe.edu/mrulison/files/2016/07/acc_disk-

1xd7ntd.gif)

The release of energy is greatest at the inner edge of the accretion disk where temperatures can reach
millions of degrees. If the object at the center is very compact, then a highly energetic source is
available with only a small accretion rate. This region will be the source of strong x-ray and UV
radiation, the signature of an x-ray binary system such as seen in Puppisa shown below.

(http://sites.oglethorpe.edu/mrulison/files/2016/07/puppisa_rosat-160ok7z.gif)

If the gas is dumped in vast amounts from the accretion disk to the neutron star, then the energy can
not be released fast enough and tremendous pressures build up. The pressure can only be relieved if
the gas is ejected. Since its easier for the plasmas to be ejected through the thinner poles, two powerful
jets of high velocity hot gases form perpendicular to the accretion disk.

Microlensing :
When old neutrons stars have slowed down to the point where they no longer emit radio or x-ray
radiation, they are invisible. However, we can detect dark neutron stars by their tremendous
gravitational fields as they bend of light of stars behind them, called gravitational microlensing.

(http://sites.oglethorpe.edu/mrulison/files/2016/07/microlensing-1d01ymc.gif)

Surveys of microlensing will image a patch of the sky towards the center of the galaxy looking for
sharp changes in light over a period of weeks. These changes in brightness mark the passage of a
neutron star in front of the target star, and the lensing of the background star light by the neutron star.
The period and shape of the microlensing event provides information on the mass of the neutron star.

(http://sites.oglethorpe.edu/mrulis (http://sites.oglethorpe.edu/mrulis
on/astronomy-web-lecture- on/astronomy-web-lecture-
notes/chapter-22-condensed- notes/chapter-22-condensed-
objects/microlens_field/) objects/microlens_light_curve/)
Patch of Sky Sharp Changes in Light

Black holes can be better understood if one first considers relativit

(http://sites.oglethorpe.edu/mrulison/files/2016/07/einst_5-1y29zty.jpg)y. Follow Einstein for a
review of special and general relativity.

Gravity Probe B Link (http://einstein.stanford.edu/index.html)

Black Holes:
The fact that light is bent by a gravitational field brings up the following thought experiment. Imagine
adding mass to a body. As the mass increases, so does the gravitational pull and objects require more
energy to reach escape velocity. When the mass is sufficiently high enough that the velocity needed to
escape is greater than the speed of light we say that a black hole has been created.

(http://sites.oglethorpe.edu/mrulison/files/2016/07/black_hole_forms-1h7gs5x.gif)

Another way of defining a black hole is that for a given mass, there is a radius where if all the mass is
compressed within this radius the curvature of spacetime becomes infinite and the object is
surrounded by an event horizon (see end of chapter). This radius called the Schwarzschild
radius(see end of chapter) and varys with the mass of the object (large mass objects have large
Schwarzschild radii, small mass objects have small Schwarzschild radii).

(http://sites.oglethorpe.edu/mrulison/files/2016/07/bh-

163hl81.gif)

(http://sites.oglethorpe.edu/mrulison/files/2016/07/prob_19-

2dnbe44.gif)

The visual image of a black hole is one of a dark spot in space with no radiation emitted. Any radiation
falling on the black hole is not reflected but rather absorbed, and starlight from behind the black hole
is lensed. So even though no radiation escapes a black hole, its mass can be detected by the deflection of
starlight. In addition to mass, a black hole can have two other properties, electric charge and angular
momentum.

(http://sites.oglethorpe.edu/mrulison/files/2016/07/black_hole_image-qxfby0.jpg)

Even though a black hole is invisible, it has properties and structure. The boundary surrounding the
black hole at the Schwarzschild radius is called the event horizon, events below this limit are not
observed. Since the forces of matter can not overcome the force of gravity, all the mass of a black hole
compresses to infinity at the very center, called the singularity.
(http://sites.oglethorpe.edu/mrulison/files/2016/07/bh_interior-1gfokh6.gif)

A black hole can come in any size. Stellar mass black holes are thought to form from supernova events,
and have radii of 5 km. Galactic black hole in the cores of some galaxies are built up over time by
cannibalizing stars. Mini black holes formed in the early Universe (due to tremendous pressures) down
to masses of asteroids with radii the sizes of grains of sand.

(http://sites.oglethorpe.edu/mrulison/files/2016/07/collapse-

1yr5aom.gif)

Note that a black hole is the ultimate entropy (see end of chapter) sink since all information or objects
that enter a black hole never returns. If an observer entered a black hole to look for the missing
information, he/she would be unable to communicate their findings outside the event horizon.

(http://sites.oglethorpe.edu/mrulison/files/2016/07/falling_into_black_hole-1gop4gz.gif)

Of course if the objects falling into the black hole form an accretion disk, then we can detected the x-
rays from the infalling gas. This is our only method of indirectly finding black holes, as companions to
other stars.

Wormholes:
With the rubber sheet analogue of curved spacetime and gravity, it is possible to visualize a mass, such
as a star, as a dent in the sheet and the orbit of objects around the star as objects following the
curvature of the dent much like balls rolling on the inside of a bowl. With this same analogue, the
greater the mass the deeper the dent. Black holes are objects which have an infinite well in the rubber
sheet and effectively punch through the fabric of spacetime.

It is mathematically possible to connect two black holes into a wormhole. Such a wormhole could be
used as a shortcut from one part of the Universe to another, however, you would have to be able to
travel faster than the speed(more below) of light to exit the wormhole, which is not possible.

A wormhole can also be used to make a time machine. Imagine vibrating one end of a wormhole at
close to the speed of light. Due to time dilation, that end would have a slower clock then the far end.
Thus, you could enter the far end and exit the near end at a previous time. However, time travel is
impossible since it is a violation of causality (see the grandfather paradoxbelow).

Superfluid

A superfluid is the unusual properties of liquid helium when it is cooled below 2.18 K (-270.97 C), called
the lambda point. The term was coined in 1938 by the Soviet physicist Pyotr Kapitsa following an
extensive series of experiments showing that in this state of helium, called helium II (He II), there is an
apparent enormous rise in heat conductivity, rapid flow through capillaries or over the rim of its
containment vessel as a thin film, and that a number of other unusual properties also appear.

(http://sites.oglethorpe.edu/mrulison/files/2016/07/superfluid_heat-20y05gv.gif)

In order to account for such behaviour, the two fluid model, as proposed by Laszlo Tisza, described
He II as a mixture of normal helium and superfluid helium. The normal component is attributed to
helium atoms in excited energy states, whereas the superfluid component is attributed to atoms all in
the ground state (having lowest or zero-point energy). As the temperature continues to be lower below
the lambda point, more of the He II becomes superfluid. It is assumed that this superfluid component is
able to move through its container without friction, thereby explaining most of the unusual behaviour
of helium II.
(http://sites.oglethorpe.edu/mrulison/files/2016/07/superfluid_flow-1baz053.gif)

Superconducting protons

Superconductivity is the complete disappearance of electrical resistance in various solids when they
are cooled below a characteristic temperature. This temperature, called the transition temperature,
varies for different materials but generally is below 20 K (-253 C).

Superconductivity was first discovered in mercury by the Dutch physicist Heike Kamerlingh Onnes in
1911. Similar behaviour has been found in approximately 25 other chemical elements, including lead
and tin, and in thousands of alloys and chemical compounds. All other materials that have been
investigated to within fractions of a degree of absolute zero show normal resistance to the flow of
electric currents.

The use of superconductors in magnets is limited by the fact that strong magnetic fields above a certain
critical value, depending upon the material, cause a superconductor to revert to its normal, or
nonsuperconducting, state, even though the material is kept well below the transition temperature.

Another basic property of superconductors, besides their lack of resistance, is their ability to prevent
external magnetic fields from penetrating their interior: they are perfect diamagnets. All external
magnetic fields less than the critical value are totally screened from the interior of type I
superconductors, but strong fields are only partially screened from the interior of type II. Some type II
superconductors have been found to retain their superconductivity in all but the strongest magnetic
fields.

In 1986 and 1987 a few type II superconductors were discovered to retain their superconductivity at
temperatures as high as 98 K. Compounds retaining their superconductivity at temperatures as high as
134 or 127 K were soon found. These high-temperature superconductors all contain copper and oxygen
atoms that form planes or chains of atoms in the crystal. Their properties are anisotropici.e.,
dependent on the direction of current flow and of magnetic field with respect to the planes and chains
of atoms. These new materials are ceramics, and their properties are sensitive to the amount of oxygen
in them. Because they are superconducting at temperatures that can be inexpensively obtained with
liquid nitrogen, these ceramic oxides hold great promise for practical applications. Problems of
brittleness, instabilities in some chemical environments (such as moist air), and a tendency for
impurities to segregate at surfaces of the crystals (where they interfere with the flow of high currents
in the superconducting state) have yet to be overcome, however.
Suggested uses for superconducting materials include medical magnetic-imaging devices, magnetic
energy-storage systems, motors, generators, transformers, computer parts, and very sensitive devices
for measuring magnetic fields, voltages, or currents. The main advantages of devices made from
superconductors are low power dissipation, high-speed operation, and high sensitivity.

Dynamo effect

The dynamo effect is a geophysical theory that explains the origin of the Earths main magnetic field in
terms of a self-exciting (or self-sustaining) dynamo. In this dynamo mechanism, fluid motion in the
Earths outer core moves conducting material (liquid iron) across an already existing, weak magnetic
field and generates an electric current. (Heat from radioactive decay in the core is thought to induce
the convective motion.) The electric current, in turn, produces a magnetic field that also interacts with
the fluid motion to create a secondary magnetic field. Together, the two fields are stronger than the
original and lie essentially along the axis of the Earths rotation.

(http://sites.oglethorpe.edu/mrulison/files/2016/07/mag_dynamo-1akpazg.gif)

The example presented in above figure illustrates how these factors might generate a self-sustaining
magnetic field. Assume first (A) that there is present an initial poloidal magnetic field (one lying in
meridian planes). Suppose next that the innermost part of the field line is embedded in a fluid rotating
more rapidly than the outer parts of the fluid. In good conductors, magnetic field lines are nearly
frozen into the fluid and have to move as the fluid moves. After many rotations a field line will wrap
up around the rotation axis, creating a large toroidal field (one lying in planes perpendicular to the
rotation axis). Since the conductivity is not perfect, the toroidal loop may diffuse through the fluid,
disconnecting itself from the original poloidal field (B).

Next, consider the effect of radial fluid motion on the toroidal field. At various points in the liquid core,
fluid is rising in cells driven by thermal convection. The rising fluid carries with it the toroidal
magnetic field. As it rises, the Coriolis force deflects the fluid and causes it to spin around the central
axis of the cell, thereby twisting the magnetic field. After a rotation of about 270 the magnetic field lines
begin to twist about themselves and can diffuse through the conductor, disconnecting from the toroidal
loop (C). At this stage, the rising loop is oriented in a meridian plane with the field pointing in the same
direction as the original fieldi.e., poloidal. Finally, small loops may merge into a single large loop,
recreating the initial poloidal field (D). In cells of sinking fluid, the toroidal field wraps in the opposite
direction and the poloidal loops have the opposite polarity. If the sinking process were exactly
symmetrical, field loops produced in this manner would cancel loops created by rising fluid. Thus, for
the process to create a net field of the correct sign, loops produced by sinking fluid must be weaker
than loops resulting from rising fluid.

The dynamo theory was proposed by the German-born American physicist Walter M. Elsasser and the
British geophysicist Edward Bullard during the mid-1900s. Although various other mechanisms for
generating the geomagnetic field have been proposed, only the dynamo concept is seriously considered
today.

Synchroton radiation

Synchrotron radiation is electromagnetic energy emitted by charged particles (e.g., electrons and ions)
that are moving at speeds close to that of light when their paths are altered, as by a magnetic field. It is
so called because particles moving at such speeds in a variety of particle accelerator that is known as a
synchrotron produce electromagnetic radiation of this sort.

(http://sites.oglethorpe.edu/mrulison/files/2016/07/synchrotron-yrcw0j.gif)

Many kinds of astronomical objects have been found to emit synchrotron radiation as well. High-
energy electrons spiraling through the lines of force of the magnetic field around the planet Jupiter, for
example, give off synchrotron radiation at radio wavelengths. Synchrotron radiation at such
wavelengths and at those of visible and ultraviolet light is generated by electrons moving in the
magnetic field associated with the supernova remnant known as the Crab Nebula. Radio emissions of
the synchrotron variety also have been detected from other supernova remnants in the Milky Way
Galaxy and from extragalactic objects called quasars.

Synchrotron radiation characteristically is highly polarized and continuous. Its intensity and frequency
are directly related to the strength of the magnetic field and the energy of the charged particles
affected by the field. Accordingly, the stronger the magnetic field and the higher the energy of the
particles, the greater the intensity and frequency of the emitted radiation. Synchrotron radiation is not
dependent on the temperature of a given astronomical source; a relatively cool object can release
substantial amounts of electromagnetic energy in this form. Synchrotron radiation is thus often termed
nonthermal radiation.


Pulsar

Pulsar is any of a class of cosmic objects that emit extremely regular pulses of radio waves; a few such
objects are known to give off short rhythmic bursts of visible light, X rays, and gamma radiation as
well.

Pulsars are thought to be rapidly spinning neutron stars, extremely dense stars composed almost
entirely of neutrons and having a diameter of only 20 km (12 miles) or less. A neutron star is formed
when the core of a violently exploding star called a supernova collapses inward and becomes
compressed together. Neutrons at the surface of the star decay into protons and electrons. As these
charged particles are released from the surface, they enter an intense magnetic field that surrounds the
star and rotates along with it. Accelerated to speeds approaching that of light, the particles give off
electromagnetic radiation by synchrotron emission. This radiation is released as intense beams from
the pulsars magnetic poles.

These magnetic poles do not coincide with the rotational poles, and so the rotation of the pulsar swings
the radiation beams around. As the beams sweep regularly past the Earth with each complete rotation,
an evenly spaced series of pulses is detected by ground-based telescopes.

Antony Hewish and Jocelyn Bell, astronomers working at the University of Cambridge, first discovered
pulsars in 1967 with the aid of a radio telescope specially designed to record very rapid fluctuations in
radio sources. Subsequent searches have resulted in the detection of more than 300 pulsars. A
significant percentage of these objects are concentrated toward the plane of the Milky Way Galaxy, the
enormous galactic system in which the Earth is located.

Although all known pulsars exhibit similar behaviour, they show considerable variation in the length
of their periodsi.e., the intervals between successive pulses. The periods of the slowest pulsars so far
observed are about four seconds in duration. The fastest, the Millisecond Pulsar (discovered in 1982),
has a period of 0.00155 second, or 1.55 milliseconds, which is considerably shorter than that of any
known pulsar. It has been determined that the Millisecond Pulsar is spinning 642 times per second.
This is close to the theoretical limit for a pulsar because a neutron star rotating only four times faster
would fly apart as a result of centrifugal force at its equator, notwithstanding a gravitational pull so
strong that the stars escape velocity is about half the speed of light.

Careful timing of radio pulsars shows that they are slowing down very gradually at a rate of typically a
millionth of a second per year. The ratio of a pulsars present period to the average slow-down rate
gives some indication of its age. This so-called timing age is in close agreement with the actual age of
the one pulsar whose time of birth is known independently: the Crab Pulsar, which was formed during
a supernova explosion observed in AD 1054. The Crab Pulsar is the youngest known, followed by the
Vela Pulsar that has a projected timing age of 11,000 years.

The Crab and Vela pulsars are losing rotational energy so precipitously that they also emit radiation of
shorter wavelength. The Crab Pulsar appears in optical photographs as a moderately bright (magnitude
16) star in the centre of the Crab Nebula. Soon after the detection of its radio pulses in 1968,
astronomers at the Steward Observatory in Arizona found that visible light from the Crab Pulsar
flashes at exactly the same rate. The star also produces regular pulses of X rays and gamma rays. The
Vela Pulsar is much fainter at optical wavelengths (average magnitude 24) and was observed in 1977
during a particularly sensitive search with the large Anglo-Australian Telescope situated at Parkes,
Australia. It also emits X rays though it does not seem to pulse at those wavelengths. The Vela Pulsar
does, however, give off gamma rays in regular pulses and is the most intense source of such radiation
in the sky.

Older radio-emitting pulsars are slowing down at a lesser rate than the young ones and have long
periods. Moreover, it has been determined on the basis of timing ages that pulsars switch off after
about 10 million years when their magnetic fields have weakened appreciably. The number of pulsars
detected relatively close to the Sun indicates that there must be some one million active pulsars in the
Milky Way Galaxy. These two figures taken together suggest that an object of this kind must be born
every 10 years, a rate which is inexplicably five times greater than the rate of occurrence of
supernovae generally thought to produce neutron stars.

Friction

Friction is a force that resists the sliding or rolling of one solid object over another. Frictional forces,
such as the traction needed to walk without slipping, may be beneficial; but they also present a great
measure of opposition to motion. About 20 percent of the engine power of automobiles is consumed in
overcoming frictional forces in the moving parts.

The major cause of friction between metals appears to be the forces of attraction, known as adhesion,
between the contact regions of the surfaces, which are always microscopically irregular. Friction arises
from shearing these welded junctions and from the action of the irregularities of the harder surface
plowing across the softer surface.

Two simple experimental facts characterize the friction of sliding solids. First, the amount of friction is
nearly independent of the area of contact. If a brick is pulled along a table, the frictional force is the
same whether the brick is lying flat or standing on end. Second, friction is proportional to the load or
weight that presses the surfaces together. If a pile of three bricks is pulled along a table, the friction is
three times greater than if one brick is pulled. Thus, the ratio of friction F to load L is constant. This
constant ratio is called the coefficient of friction and is usually symbolized by the Greek letter mu ().
Mathematically, = F/L. Because both friction and load are measured in units of force (such as pounds or
newtons), the coefficient of friction is dimensionless. The value of the coefficient of friction for a case of
one or more bricks sliding on a clean wooden table is about 0.5, which implies that a force equal to half
the weight of the bricks is required just to overcome friction in keeping the bricks moving along at a
constant speed. The frictional force itself is directed oppositely to the motion of the object. Because the
friction thus far described arises between surfaces in relative motion, it is called kinetic friction.

Static friction, in contrast, acts between surfaces at rest with respect to each other. The value of static
friction varies between zero and the smallest force needed to start motion. This smallest force required
to start motion, or to overcome static friction, is always greater than the force required to continue the
motion, or to overcome kinetic friction.

Rolling friction occurs when a wheel, ball, or cylinder rolls freely over a surface, as in ball and roller
bearings. The main source of friction in rolling appears to be dissipation of energy involved in
deformation of the objects. If a hard ball is rolling on a level surface, the ball is somewhat flattened and
the level surface somewhat indented in the regions in contact. The elastic deformation or compression
produced at the leading section of the area in contact is a hindrance to motion that is not fully
compensated as the substances spring back to normal shape at the trailing section. The internal losses
in the two substances are similar to those that keep a ball from bouncing back to the level from which
it is dropped. Coefficients of sliding friction are generally 100 to 1,000 times greater than coefficients of
rolling friction for corresponding materials. This advantage was realized historically with the
transition from sledge to wheel.

Event Horizon

Immediately on publication of Einsteins paper on general relativity, the German astronomer Karl
Schwarzschild found a mathematical solution to the new field equations, which corresponds to the
gravitational field of a compact massive body, such as a star or planet, and which is now referred to as
Schwarzschilds field. If the mass that serves as the source of the field is fairly diffuse, so that the
gravitational field on the surface of the astronomical body is fairly weak, Schwarzschilds field will
exhibit physical properties similar to those described by Newton. Gross deviations will be found if the
mass is so highly concentrated that the field on the surface is strong. At the time of Schwarzschilds
work, in 1916, this appeared to be a theoretical speculation; but with the discovery of pulsars and their
interpretation as probable neutron stars composed of matter that has the same density as atomic nuclei
(so-called nuclear matter), the possibility exists that strong fields may soon be accessible to
astronomical observation.

The most conspicuous feature of the Schwarzschild field is that if the total mass is thought of as
concentrated at the very centre, a point called a singularity, then at a finite distance from that centre,
the Schwarzschild radius, the geometry of space-time changes drastically from that to which we are
accustomed. Particles and even light rays cannot penetrate from inside the Schwarzschild radius to the
outside and be detected. Conversely, to an outside observer any objects approaching the Schwarzschild
radius appear to take an infinite time to penetrate toward the inside. There cannot be any effective
communication between the inside and the outside, and the boundary between them is called an event
horizon.

The exterior and the interior of the Schwarzschild radius are not cut off from each other entirely,
however. Suppose an observer were to attach himself to a particle that is falling freely straight toward
the centre and that this observer is equipped with a clock that reads its own proper time. This observer
would penetrate the Schwarzschild radius within a finite proper time; moreover, he would find no
abnormalities in his environment as he did so. The reason is that his clock would deviate from one
permanently kept outside and at a constant distance from the centre, so grossly that the same event
that seen from the outside takes forever occurs within a finite time to the free-falling observer.

Schwarzschild radius

Schwarzschild radius is the radius below which the gravitational attraction between the particles of a
body must cause it to undergo irreversible gravitational collapse. This phenomenon is thought to be the
final fate of the more massive stars.
The gravitational radius (R) of an object of mass M is given by the following formula, in which G is the
universal gravitational constant and c is the speed of light: R = 2GM/c2 . For a mass as small as a human
being, the gravitational radius is of the order of 10-23 cm, much smaller than the nucleus of an atom;
for a typical star such as the Sun, it is about 3 km (2 miles).

Entropy

There is one more influence of cosmological relationships upon macroscopic physics, which arises in
connection with thermodynamics. The existence of irreversible processes in thermodynamics indicates
a distinction between the positive and negative directions in time. As Clausius recognized in the 19th
century, this irreversibility reflects a quantity, first defined by him, called entropy, which measures the
degree of randomness evolving from all physical processes by which their energies tend to degrade
into heat. Entropy can only increase in the positive direction of time. In fact, the increase in entropy
during a process is a measure of the irreversibility of that process.

Faster than the speed of light

Actually it is possible for you to travel at the speed of light. We simply need to convert all the atoms in
your body into photons. Heres one way: First we get a a pile of antimatter, then we use a strong
magnetic field to rapidly disassemble the atoms in your body. Tagging them as to where they go, we
then combine each electron, proton, neutron with its antiparticle. They annihilate each other and make
photons. We beam the photons to where you want to go, grab random atoms to reassemble you
according to the information on the photons. Bingo!Anyone want to try this?

Grandfather paradox

Time travel is impossible as exemplified by the famous grandfather paradox. Imagine you build a time
machine. It is possible for you to travel back in time, meet your grandfather before he produces any
children (i.e. your father/mother) and kill him. Thus, you would not have been born and the time
machine would not have been built, a paradox.

Perhaps the craziest of the time travel paradoxes was cooked up by Robert Heinlein in his classic short
story All You Zombies.

A baby girl is mysteriously dropped off at an orphanage in Cleveland in 1945. Jane grows up lonely
and dejected, not knowing who her parents are, until one day in 1963 she is strangely attracted to a
drifter. She falls in love with him. But just when things are finally looking up for Jane, a series of
disasters strike. First, she becomes pregnant by the drifter, who then disappears. Second, during the
complicated delivery, doctors find that Jane has both sets of sex organs, and to save her life, they are
forced to surgically convert her to a him. Finally, a mysterious stranger kidnaps her baby from the
delivery room.

Reeling from these disasters, rejected by society, scorned by fate, he becomes a drunkard and drifter.
Not only has Jane lost her parents and her lover, but he has lost his only child as well. Years later, in
1970, he stumbles into a lonely bar, called Pops Place, and spills out his pathetic story to an elderly
bartender. The sympathetic bartender offers the drifter the chance to avenge the stranger who left her
pregnant and abandoned, on the condition that he join the time travelers corps. Both of them enter a
time machine, and the bartender drops off the drifter in 1963. The drifter is strangely attracted to a
young orphan woman, who subsequently becomes pregnant.

The bartender then goes forward 9 months, kidnaps the baby girl from the hospital, and drops off the
baby in an orphanage back in 1945. Then the bartender drops off the thoroughly confused drifter in
1985, to enlist in the time travelers corps. The drifter eventually gets his life together, becomes a
respected and elderly member of the time travelers corps, and then disguises himself as a bartender
and has his most difficult mission: a date with destiny, meeting a certain drifter at Pops Place in 1970.

The question is: Who is Janes mother, father, grandfather, grand mother, son, daughter,
granddaughter, and grandson? The girl, the drifter, and the bartender, of course, are all the same
person. These paradoxes can made your head spin, especially if you try to untangle Janes twisted
parentage. If we drawJanes family tree, we find that all the branches are curled inward back on
themselves, as in a circle. We come to the astonishing conclusion that she is her own mother and
father! She is an entire family tree unto herself.

(http://sites.oglethorpe.edu/mrulison/files/2016/07/loop-1ohpilr.gif)

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