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Universität Potsdam
Institut für Physik und Astronomie
The Universe is filled with highly energetic astrophysical explosions. Mergers of neutron stars form a particularly fascinating subclass thereof. Because neutron stars are extremely compact, their gravitational fields are strong, and we need to use Einstein's general relativity for a valid macroscopic description. On the other hand, proper modeling of microscopic physics requires the fundamental theories of strong nuclear interactions (nuclear forces) as well as weak interactions (neutrino interactions). We plan to study the diverse physics of neutron star mergers with new numerical-relativity simulations. These simulations provide solutions to the general relativistic two-body problem. Due to recent code improvements, we are able to perform simulations with a neutrino transport scheme coupled to the equations of general-relativistic magnetohydrodynamics. Follow-up analyses will provide an almost complete multi-messenger picture.