Neutron Star versus Neutral Star: On the 90th anniversary of Landau's publication in astrophysics

TL;DR

This paper revisits Landau's 1932 concept of neutron stars, discusses its historical development, and explores how modern ideas like strangeon matter could provide alternative explanations for stellar neutralization.

Contribution

It offers a historical review of neutron star theory and introduces the potential of strangeon matter as a novel approach to stellar neutralization.

Findings

Landau's neutron star idea originated from quantum mechanics principles.

Strangeonization may serve as an alternative to neutronization in stellar matter.

Implications for dark matter and cosmic rays in the context of strangeon matter.

Abstract

In the late age of developing quantum mechanics, Lev Landau, one of the distinguished players, made great efforts to understand the nature of matter, even stellar matter, by applying the quantum theory. Ninety years ago, he published his idea of "neutron" star, which burst upon him during his visit over Europe in the previous year. The key point that motivated Landau to write the paper is to make a state with lower energy for "gigantic nucleus", avoiding extremely high kinematic energy of electron gas due to the new Fermi-Dirac statistics focused hotly on at that time. Landau had no alternative but to neutronize/neutralize by "combining a proton and an electron", as electron and proton were supposed to be elementary before the discovery of neutron. However, our understanding of the Nature has fundamentally improved today, and another way (i.e., strangeonization) could also embody neutralization and thus a low-energy state that Landau had in mind, which could further make unprecedented opportunities in this multi-messenger era of astronomy. Strangeon matter in "old" physics may impact dramatically on today's physics, from compact stars initiated by Landau, to cosmic rays and dark matter. In this essay, we are making briefly the origin and development of neutron star concept to reform radically, to remember Landau's substantial contribution in astrophysics and to recall those peculiar memories.