Our celebration of Dr. Brendan Reed's successful doctoral dissertation defense, with his supervisor, Dr. Charles Horowitz.
Dissertation Title: Neutron Stars and Neutron Skins: A Crossroads in Nuclear Astrophysics
Abstract: The holy grail of nuclear physics is the nuclear equation of state. It governs the behavior of nuclear matter at a large variety of densities and proton-neutron asymmetries. In particular for this thesis, I will be focusing on the equation of state for neutron-rich matter, which is perhaps more interesting than symmetric or proton-rich matter because of how much less well it is constrained. The observation of neutron-rich skins in neutron-rich nuclei, such as the doubly-magic \lead, have helped constrain the equation of state near saturation density $\rho_0\approx0.16$ fm$^{-3}$. At higher density, neutron stars are prime real estate for observing the neutron-rich equation of state and help us infer important information about the behavior of matter in the most extreme environments. There have been several new developments in constraining the neutron-rich sector of the equation of state at both high and low densities. This includes the spectacular gravitational wave event GW170817, which saw the collision of two $1.4\msun$ neutron stars in gravitational radiation, and the PREX-2 and CREX neutron-skin experiments. In this thesis, I will detail my contribution to the field of nuclear astrophysics and how they pertain to constraining the equation of state of nuclear matter. This will require a brief overview of the equation of state and the structure of neutron stars before delving into the specific equations and theory behind my works. After which I give my published works in each topic of my thesis.
