Neutron star collisions create a strange, dense 'soup' of quarks and gluons in the aftermath of the smashup that scientists are studying.
An artist's impression of a neutron star merger as the two stars merge, change shape, and heat up. Courtesy: University of Warwick/Mark Garlick.
These weird stars are hugely dense and strange collections of neutrons. So, when two of them dance and merge, they change shape under the pressure of the merger. They also heat up. The conditions eventually change the states of matter in their cores. According to Professor Aleksi Vuorinen of the University of Helsinki, Finland, this is what astronomers think happens during neutron star mergers. However, he points out nobody completely understands those conditions and how quarks behave in them.
When neutron stars merge, obviously they mix and mingle their contents. Researchers want to know the viscosity of the material created in the merger. Essentially, this would be a measure of how strongly particle interactions would resist flowing. Or, think of it as measuring how “sticky” the flow of the quark soup would be. A thick quark soup would flow more slowly while a thin one would move faster.
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