Astrophysicists detect the strongest magnetic field in the universe • Hacker News Board

Re: Astrophysicists detect the strongest magnetic field in the universe

#11

Post by dredmorbius » Wed, Sep 16, 2020, 6:25 PM UTC

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #6

the8472 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The same reason earth or the sun have a magnetic field. But the collapse of the star's core compresses the dynamo into a much smaller volume and speeds up the rotation due to conservation of angular momentum, thus making it more powerful. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_dynamo

But that requires an electrically conducting fluid. Neutrons aren't electrically conducting, are they?

At their surface, and possibly internally, the neutronium likely breaks down, if only briefly, giving protons and electrons.

Voila, spinning charges.

Current models indicate that matter at the surface of a neutron star is composed of ordinary atomic nuclei crushed into a solid lattice with a sea of electrons flowing through the gaps between them.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutron_star#Structure

Re: Astrophysicists detect the strongest magnetic field in the universe

#12

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Sep 16, 2020, 6:32 PM UTC

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #6

the8472 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The same reason earth or the sun have a magnetic field. But the collapse of the star's core compresses the dynamo into a much smaller volume and speeds up the rotation due to conservation of angular momentum, thus making it more powerful. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_dynamo

But that requires an electrically conducting fluid. Neutrons aren't electrically conducting, are they?

[deleted]

Re: Astrophysicists detect the strongest magnetic field in the universe

#13

Post by SirLuxuryYacht » Wed, Sep 16, 2020, 6:43 PM UTC

_Microft wrote: post #5

Magnetars are even more mindblowing than blackholes, in my opinion. Here is an excerpt from the Wikipedia article on Magnetars, to blow your mind as well: "X-ray photons readily split in two or merge. The vacuum itself is polarized, becoming strongly birefringent, like a calcite crystal. Atoms are deformed into long cylinders thinner than the quantum-relativistic de Broglie wavelength of an electron." In a field of a…

How do those rod-shaped atoms, like hydrogen, interact with other hydrogens or other atoms? Can chemical reactions still even happen in the traditional sense?

Re: Astrophysicists detect the strongest magnetic field in the universe

#14

Post by DecoPerson » Wed, Sep 16, 2020, 7:23 PM UTC

SirLuxuryYacht wrote: post #13

_Microft wrote: post #5

Magnetars are even more mindblowing than blackholes, in my opinion. Here is an excerpt from the Wikipedia article on Magnetars, to blow your mind as well: "X-ray photons readily split in two or merge. The vacuum itself is polarized, becoming strongly birefringent, like a calcite crystal. Atoms are deformed into long cylinders thinner than the quantum-relativistic de Broglie wavelength of an electron." In a field of a…

How do those rod-shaped atoms, like hydrogen, interact with other hydrogens or other atoms? Can chemical reactions still even happen in the traditional sense?

Layman here.

Most classes of stars are already hot enough that molecules are torn apart. The atoms are in a gas or plasma state. Pairs of atoms will pass through transient states that could be classed as “molecules” but they’re very short-lived. Electrons—a key part of chemical reactions—flow freely like in metal.

Hydrogen atoms are just a single proton with some number of neutrons. I’m not sure if the proton itself is stretched (Is a gluon a particle like a proton is a particle??), or if the EM field around the proton is so influenced that electrons move around it like it’s a rod/cylinder.

Re: Astrophysicists detect the strongest magnetic field in the universe

#15

Post by anm89 » Wed, Sep 16, 2020, 7:36 PM UTC

This is almost certainly not the strongest in the uninverse based on the sample size of our observations right?

This is the strongest we have observed. Still really fascinating.

Re: Astrophysicists detect the strongest magnetic field in the universe

#16

Post by yk » Wed, Sep 16, 2020, 8:00 PM UTC

SirLuxuryYacht wrote: post #13

_Microft wrote: post #5

Magnetars are even more mindblowing than blackholes, in my opinion. Here is an excerpt from the Wikipedia article on Magnetars, to blow your mind as well: "X-ray photons readily split in two or merge. The vacuum itself is polarized, becoming strongly birefringent, like a calcite crystal. Atoms are deformed into long cylinders thinner than the quantum-relativistic de Broglie wavelength of an electron." In a field of a…

How do those rod-shaped atoms, like hydrogen, interact with other hydrogens or other atoms? Can chemical reactions still even happen in the traditional sense?

Depends, chemistry looks very differently simply because in such environments it is better to think of an electron gas that moves in a magnetic field, and is slightly perturbed by the presence of nuclei, rather than thinking of electrons being bound in atoms and being slightly perturbed by a magnetic field.

So you certainly have to recalculate all your reaction rates compared to laboratory conditions, and my guess would be, that in general the chemistry should look a lot more than reactions in plasmas, rather than normal (nicely stable) chemistry.

Re: Astrophysicists detect the strongest magnetic field in the universe

#17

Post by samcgraw » Wed, Sep 16, 2020, 8:45 PM UTC

anm89 wrote: post #15

This is almost certainly not the strongest in the uninverse based on the sample size of our observations right? This is the strongest we have observed. Still really fascinating.

My thoughts exactly. The title should be updated to reflect this (I was expecting some sort of theoretical limit to a magnetic field).

Re: Astrophysicists detect the strongest magnetic field in the universe

#18

Post by rini17 » Wed, Sep 16, 2020, 9:02 PM UTC

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #6

the8472 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The same reason earth or the sun have a magnetic field. But the collapse of the star's core compresses the dynamo into a much smaller volume and speeds up the rotation due to conservation of angular momentum, thus making it more powerful. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_dynamo

But that requires an electrically conducting fluid. Neutrons aren't electrically conducting, are they?

Neutrons do have magnetic moment after all. [1] says it's about 1000 times weaker than electron, so...no idea how much it contributes to the neutron star's field as compared to degenerate electron matter crust (which is very conductive kind of fluid).

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutron_magnetic_moment

Re: Astrophysicists detect the strongest magnetic field in the universe

#19

Post by robocat » Wed, Sep 16, 2020, 9:08 PM UTC

“a significance level of > 20σ”

Insane! Clearly that doesn’t include the uncertainty in our understanding of physics or neutron stars.

Edit: I tried to work out the % that 20σ is, but it is so mind bogglingly small that there should be a law against using such an insane number in any serious context.

Re: Astrophysicists detect the strongest magnetic field in the universe

#20

Post by SubiculumCode » Wed, Sep 16, 2020, 9:35 PM UTC

hell of a MRI they got over there. The jealously is real.