Physics Capstone

West Virginia University Physics Senior Thesis

Fall 2022

Abstract

General Relativity is a very abstract and general theory, so much so that it can often seem unintuitive how one would use it to obtain anything but the most trivial results. This paper demonstrates the use of numerical methods to find solutions to a model of a static, spherically symmetric, non-rotating neutron star. The model is derived from the Tolman-Oppenheimer-Volkoff equations: a famous early solution to Einstein’s Field Equations. The model uses equations of state from recent empirical results shown by Raaijmakers et al (2019). and is able to predict a relationship between the pressure over the radius of a neutron star and predict a relationship between the mass and radius of these neutron stars more generally.

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