Electron

General relativity

Mathematical physics

Plasma

Astrophysics

Quantum mechanics

Neutron

Neutron star

Fermi liquid theory

Thermonuclear fusion

Nuclear matter

Nucleon

Nuclear physics

Equation of state

Physics

Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope

Physical Review

It has been suggested that, when the pressure within stellar matter becomes high enough, a new phase consisting of neutrons will be formed. In this paper we study the gravitational equilibrium of masses of neutrons, using the equation of state for a cold Fermi gas, and general relativity. For masses under $\frac{1}{3}\ensuremath{\bigodot}$ only one equilibrium solution exists, which is approximately described by the nonrelativistic Fermi equation of state and Newtonian gravitational theory. For masses $\frac{1}{3}\ensuremath{\bigodot}&lt;m&lt;\frac{3}{4}\ensuremath{\bigodot}$ two solutions exist, one stable and quasi-Newtonian, one more condensed, and unstable. For masses greater than $\frac{3}{4}\ensuremath{\bigodot}$ there are no static equilibrium solutions. These results are qualitatively confirmed by comparison with suitably chosen special cases of the analytic solutions recently discovered by Tolman. A discussion of the probable effect of deviations from the Fermi equation of state suggests that actual ...

On Massive Neutron Cores