Do neutron stars burn forever?

[HarpyHarpySeal]

I Googled it and read all sorts of space books but none say if neutron stars go supernova.

 

[billslugg]

Here is a vast simplification: Neutron star is the ashes of a star, it can't burn any further. It has energy in the form of rotational kinetic energy and it has energy in magnetic fields. All of those will radiate away over eons. Eventually it will be a cold, stable mass.

 

[Harry Costas]

Neutron Stars have a compaction of 10^17
It has been observed to show properties of a Quark core.
When a core of a star collects enough matter, to form a Neutron Core, the size will develop Dipolar Electromagnetic fields strong enough to expel in the form of an hourglass its solar envelope.
The spin of a Neutron Star, is understood by understanding Chiral Supersymmetry that exhibits Dipolar Electromagnetic Vector fields, expelling matter away, and attracts matter to it.
Neutron Star is not the ashes from a star.
How long will it burn?
Billions of years.
If it's allowed to burn, in time the dipolar magnetic fields lose their power allowing the expelled matter to collect and a solar envelope will form.
If matter is collected than the Neutron matter will break down to quarks, compact to a Quark star and in so doing increase its dipolar vector fields and the vector fields pulling in matter forming a mimic black hole where EMR cannot escape.

 

[Harry Costas]

A Neutron Star if it keeps gaining matter will grow and become a monster.
Without gaining matter will last for over 7 billion years.

All matter will eventually merge, eat others, or be eaten.

 

[promytius]

I thought matter cannot be destroyed; eating it doesn't do anything to it; also, what matter eats matter? Large clumps of matter attract more matter, but there's no digestion, no gnashing of teeth. 7 billion years is a far piece short of forever.

 

[Harry Costas]

Matter cannot be created or destroyed.
Matter and energy can transform from one phase to the next.
So matter and energy can keep on changing forever and ever AMEN.

 

[billslugg]

Mass cannot be created or destroyed. There are two types of mass. One type is matter and the other type is energy. Matter and energy are interchangeable. We see it most notably in the omnipresent .511 MeV radiation from pair annihiliation. There are whole stars based on pair production.

I read up on magnetars, that is neutron stars with 10^12 Tesla magnetic fields. The field is so strong, that its energy content is greater than its equivalent in mass. In other words, if you said "I am going to take a volume of solid lead and then convert the lead into energy, and then use that energy to make a magnetic field in that volume", I would not have enough energy. Thus a magnetic field can store more energy than a mass can. This is amazing.

 

[billslugg]

One thing about magnetic fields is they tend to push the item apart. Large toroids must have steel bands around them to keep the coils from exploding. The neutron star gains its field from spinning which comes from conservation of angular momentum as it collapsed. With the extreme gravity, the star is able to spin without blowing up, and it is allowed to have an extreme magnetic field without blowing up.

 

[Harry Costas]

The condensate similar to a magnet creates the magnetic fields.
The Condensate is the store and the magnetic fields are the resultant.
Chliral Super-Symmentry within the compact core creates the Dipolar Electro-Magnetic Vector Fields.

 

[billslugg]

It is always true that a magnetic field is made by a charge that is moving relative to the observer. Even in a permanent magnet, the field is explained by moving electrons. This is very odd, because movement is relative to an observer. If an electron had a magnetic field would not we be able to measure it all the time? If you put an electron in a cart and wheel it down the street, you will measure no magnetic field, only an electric field. On the other hand, your assistant on a park bench along side the road would sense a magnetic field as it went by. How can you have something and not have something at the same time. This is one of the odd items that got Einstein to develop his theories.

 

[Harry Costas]

Hello Billslugg
Well that's one way of putting it

 

[billslugg]

There is only one field involved in magnetism, the electric field. The "magnetic field" is simply any electric field present, adjusted for relativity.

For example, how can this explain the rail gun? Why is it two wires carrying current in opposite directions will repel each other? Any electron heading down a wire will look at the electrons moving towards it in the other wire and see that line of electrons approaching it as shortened by Lorentz Contraction, thus it sees more similar charges in the other wire than its own wire, thus it repels.

The phase velocity of electrons in a wire is about 90% of the speed of light. This is the speed of the waves. The electrons themselves move only very slowly. A #10 wire carrying 100 amps wil have a group velocity of 3 mm per second. How can such a slow rate cause a measureable amount of Lorentz Contraction? This is because of the immense strength of the electric field. It is 10^32 times stronger than gravity and makes up for the tiny, tiny contraction involved.