Ayus Praharaj Grade 11 Astronomy 30 November 2010

What is different and what is alike between a black hole and a neutron star? (ASTRONOMY HOMEWORK) There are quite a few differences and similarities between a black hole and a neutron star as researches pertaining to those celestial bodies have illustrated. A black hole is basically a region or a place in space which has so much mass concentrated in it that the gravitational pull is so much that even the light cant get passed it. A neutron star on the other hand is a collapsed remainder of an exploding star (supernova). A black hole basically has a wide variation in terms of its mass when compared to the variations in mass in a neutron star. A black hole can apparently possess a mass of 1.5 solar mass to billions of solar masses (when a black hole weighs billions of solar masses, it is called a super-massive black hole). However, the mass in a neutron star varies from a 1.35 solar mass to 2.1 solar mass. Along with the masses, the densities of the two celestial bodies differ to a great extent. The density of a black hole which is about the same size as the earth would be around 2 X 10^30 kg/m3 while the density of a bigger black hole (a super-massive black hole) would be somewhat similar to that of water. However, there is a pretty wide variation found in terms of the density of the neutron stars. The densities of the neutron stars can range from 8 x 10^13 g/cm^3 - 2 x 10^15 g/cm^3. Lastly, the radius of a black hole is quite small compared to the radius of a typical neutron star. The radius would inevitably differ with different masses. So, basically the radius of a black hole of mass 1.5 solar mass will be about 4.5 km, whereas a neutron star of the same mass will have a radius of 10 km. There are quite a few similarities between them too. The very first and the most evident one would be that they are both dead stars, or in other words, they are both endpoints to stellar revolutions.

Black Hole: An object with a gravitational field so strong, not even light can escape. Has a mass ranging anywhere from 1.5 solar masses (stellar-mass) to billions of solar masses (supermassive black holes). Now, the density varies just as much. An earth sized black hole would have a density around 2 x 10^30 kg/m^3, while a supermassive black hole (believed to be at the center of most galaxies) would have a density similar to that of water. Neutron Star: Collapsed remnant of a supernova. Has a mass ranging from about 1.35 solar masses to 2.1 solar masses. They typically have densities varying from 8 x 10^13 g/cm^3 - 2 x 10^15 g/cm^3, or about the density of an atomic nucleus.

No one's really sure how a star might form into a neutron star and not a black hole. A black hole is more dense, so it is assumed that a more massive explosion, with a higher gravitational field, would have a better chance of forming into a black hole.
They are both dead stars

A black hole is the final stage in the evolution of a very massive star, where the core's mass collapses to a point that its gravity is so strong not even light can escape. while a

Ayus Praharaj Grade 11 Astronomy 30 November 2010

neutron star is a collapsed core of a supernova that can shrink to about 20km in diameter and contains only neutrons in the dense core

Neutron stars were first discovered as pulsars or Dark Stars.The idea of a dark star- Neutron Stardates back a couple of centuries to the corpuscular theory of light, that light was made of little particles called "corpuscles." We do not think that dark stars exist in nature. A dark star differs from a black hole because a lot of its light would escape beyond its analog of an event horizon, slow down, stop, and come back. Thus light on its way up (and down!) could be observed. Frozen stars and black holes actually denote the same thing, although the names emphasize different aspects of its nature. "Frozen star" was the first widely-used name for black hole. Viewed from a distance, you will never actually see a falling object cross the horizon of a black hole, even though from the object's point of view, it does pass through. So you might imagine that a black hole would appear as the frozen image of everything that ever entered it, plastered against the horizon. This is what people used to think, hence the name. However, the gravitational redshift also means that these images will also fade out (rapidly, it turns out) as the wavelength of signals goes to infinity. (It never officially becomes infinite, but it stretches out beyond all reasonable means of detection.) Thus, you won't actually see a "frozen star" but actually a "black hole" into which things disappear. Another rationale for the "frozen star" idea was that somehow the horizon was a physical surface. We now know that it is merely a boundary between visibility and invisibility. All the matter in the BH has collapsed to a singularity at its center

Neutron stars and black holes are socalled Supernova remnants: it's what is left over of a massive star after it explodes as a supernova. In a Black Hole nothing has stopped the collapse of the remnant. In a neutron star the neutrons have provided enough counter pressure to stop the collapse. Accreting black holes and neutron stars at luminosities above 0.01 of the critical Eddington luminosity have a lot of similarities, but also drastic differences in their radiation and power density spectra. The efficiency of energy release due to accretion onto a rotating neutron star usually is higher than in the case of a black hole. The theory of the spreading layer on the surface of an accreting neutron star is discussed. It predicts the appearance of two bright belts equidistant from the equator. This layer is unstable and its radiation flux must vary with high frequencies.
High-frequency QPOs reflect non-linear, and likely resonant, oscillations in accretion disks. In black holes, and probably in neutron stars, but not in white dwarfs, strong gravity plays a crucial role in their formation.

Before the launch of the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) satellite, the differences in the rapid X-ray variability between the two main types of neutron star binaries (i.e., the Z and atoll sources) could be explained by invoking different mass accretion rates and magnetic field strengths. However, the results obtained with RXTE now show that

Ayus Praharaj Grade 11 Astronomy 30 November 2010

these systems are more similar than previously thought and although differences in mass accretion rate are still likely, the differences in the magnetic field strength have become questionable. The great similarities between the neutron star systems and the black-hole candidates at low mass accretion rates also point towards a similar origin of their timing phenomena indicating that the presence or absence of a solid surface, a magnetic field, or an event horizon do not play a significant role in the production mechanisms for the rapid X-ray variability.

Both are dead stars. Both collapsed from a red giant stage with considerable fireworks. Neutron stars were originally larger, more massive stars, and are now much smaller more massive stars. White dwarfs are made of traditional matter, Neutron stars have collapsed further and are degenerate matter: basically they are one really big neutron. If either had had any planets in their HZ, now they don't.

The hurdle confronting astronomers who want to answer these questions is the similarity between neutron stars and black holes. A neutron star is not much larger than the last stable orbit of a black hole of the same mass, so the amount of energy released by an accretion disk around a neutron star is not dramatically different from that release by an accretion disk around a black hole of the same mass. The only difference in the accretion disk between the two types of compact object is that the inner edge of the disk around a neutron star interacts with the surface of the neutron star, while the inner edge of the disk around a black hole goes into free-fall to the event horizon. Under this circumstance, the evidence is largely negative; one can observe the effects of a surface, but not of a last stable orbit. The strongest signature of a surface is a thermonuclear explosion of hydrogen and helium. Such events have been seen in many x-ray binaries containing neutron stars. Hydrogen and helium from the accretion disk flows onto the surface of the neutron star. If the gas flows at a high rate, the atmosphere of the neutron star will be hot enough to sustain continuous thermonuclear fusion of hydrogen and helium to heavier elements, but if the gas flow is at a low rate, hydrogen and helium build up in the atmosphere until a thermonuclear detonation occurs. This sudden outburst is easily identified as a thermonuclear event, and its observation is clear evidence that the compact object has a surface. If one of our large black-hole candidates would exhibit a thermonuclear flash, we would have evidence of a compact object larger than 3 solar masses that is not a black hole. So far, no such event has been seen. Other signatures are more ambiguous. Both the energy liberated through steady thermonuclear fusion and the energy liberated as the gas from the accretion disk mixes with the atmosphere of a neutron star are converted to thermal radiation deep in the atmosphere. This radiation should escape the star as black-body radiation, which should be apparent in the spectrum of these systems. Many, although not all, x-ray binaries with neutron stars do show such emission, and none of the binaries with black-hole candidates show such thermal emission. Again, this provides an absence of evidence for a surface, which does not necessarily mean that no surface is present.

Ayus Praharaj Grade 11 Astronomy 30 November 2010

The x-ray binary provides us with the best opportunity to find black-hole candidates. Whether we can prove that these candidates are in fact black holes is yet to be seen. Certainly if one of our candidates suddenly produces thermonuclear bursts, we will have evidence against some piece of our physics that says black holes are larger than 3 solar masses. To this point, however, these systems tell us more about the physics of accretion disks and the evolution of stars in compact binaries than it does about black holes and general relativity.