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Some twenty-three years after the discovery of pulsars and their identification as rotating neutron stars, neutron star physics may be regarded as comingofage. Pul sars and accreting neutron stars have now been studied at every wavelength, from the initial radio observations, through optical, X-, and "{-ray, up to the very recent observations in the TeV region, while theorists have studied in some detail relevant physical processes both outside and inside neutron stars. As a result, comparisonof theory with observation provides a test ofour theoretical ideas in fields as diverse as neutron and nuclear matter, superfluidity and superconductivity, the acceleration of high energy particles, and the generation and maintenance of intense magnetic fields. For example, through observations of glitches and post glitch behavior of pulsars, it has become possible to establish the presence ofsuperfluid neutron mat ter in the inner crust of neutron stars, and to determine some of its properties, while neutron stars in compact binary systems offer one ofthe most efficient energy generation mechanisms known. It is in fact the interactive interpretation of these ,diverse pieces of information that can lead to major advances in our understanding of the physics of these exotic objects, and justifies the characterization of neutron stars as hadron physics laboratories.
List of contents
1. Inside Neutron Stars.- An Introduction to Matter at Subnuclear Densities.- The High Density Interiors of Neutron Stars.- Pairing Interactions in Neutron Stars.- Superfluid Dynamics in Neutron Stars.- Neutron Stars as Cosmic Hadron Physics Laboratories: What Glitches Teach Us.- Neutron Star Plate Tectonics.- Thermal Emission of Pulsars.- 2. Formation and Evolution.- The Formation of Neutron Stars in the Galaxy.- Core Collapse Supernovae and Neutron Star Formation.- Neutron Star Formation in Close Binary Systems.- Evolution of Close Binaries and the Formation of Millisecond Radio Pulsars.- Vaporizing Neutron Stars in LMXR Binaries and the Statistics of Millisecond Pulsars.- Companion Winds Excited by Neutron Star Radiation in LMXBS and Millisecond Pulsars.- The Evolution of Neutron Star Magnetic Fields.- Electrical Conductivity of Neutron Star Cores and Evolution of Internal Magnetic Fields.- 3. Observations on Binaries and QPO's.- Neutron Stars in X-ray Binaries.- Optical Light Curves of X-Ray Binaries.- Observations of Z and Atoll Sources.- 4. Pulsar and X-Ray emission.- An Empirical Theory of Pulsar Emission.- Plasma Physics of Accreting Neutron Stars.- Unified Model of X-Ray Spectra and QPOs in Low Mass Neutron Star Binaries.- Accreting Pulsars, Gamma-Ray Bursters and LMXB as High Energy Polarized Sources.- Accretion Flows on to Neutron Stars.- Soft X-ray Transients.- Slowly Accreting Neutron Stars ("SANS").- 5. Bursts and TeV Emission.- X-ray Bursts.- Gamma-ray Bursts.- Annihilation Radiation in Strong Magnetic Fields and Gamma-Ray Burst Spectra.- The Search for TeV Emission from Neutron Stars.- Subject and Object Index.
