Describing matter under extreme conditions, such as those found inside neutron stars, remains an unsolved problem. The ...

Astrophysicists have found evidence of a strange substance called quark matter at the heart of compact stars. Combining recent theoretical calculations with measurements of gravitational waves from ...

Artist’s impression of the different layers inside a massive neutron star, with the red circle representing a sizable quark-matter core. New theoretical analysis places the likelihood of massive ...

Neutron stars are so named because in the simplest of models they are made of neutrons. They form when the core of a large star collapses, and the weight of gravity causes atoms to collapse. Electrons ...

Scientists are dreaming up ways to probe the nature of the Universe’s smallest bits—quarks—by observing ultra-dense neutron stars slamming into each other. Particle colliders in Switzerland and on ...

Dark star crashes: the computer simulation of two merging neutron stars (left) blended with an image of heavy-ion collisions at CERN to highlight the connection of astrophysics with nuclear physics.

Scientists have presented findings from three Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiments that study lead ion collisions at the annual Quark Matter conference, held this year in Annecy, France. The ...

The rediscovery of an exotic particle provides the best evidence yet that quartets of quarks exist in a universe dominated by two- and three-quark matter. By validating the particle’s existence, says ...

Scientists performed the first accurate determination of the thermodynamic properties of dense quark matter under violent conditions that occur during neutron star mergers, and suggest a step towards ...

Astronomers believe they have found their first quark stars - super-dense objects that are formed when the remnants of old stars collapse in on themselves. Theorists have long suspected the existence ...

New theoretical analysis places the likelihood of massive neutron stars hiding cores of deconfined quark matter between 80 and 90 percent. The result was reached through massive supercomputer runs ...