Have you ever heard of Einstein@Home? It’s a volunteer computing project that searches for signals from spinning neutron stars in data from gravitational-wave detectors, large radio telescopes, and a gamma-ray telescope. By understanding these neutron stars, we can learn more about the universe around us. Let’s explore what Einstein@Home is and how it works to search for these neutron stars.
What Are Neutron Stars?
Neutron stars are one of the most fascinating objects in space. They are small, yet dense stars composed of neutrons rather than protons and electrons like ordinary matter. These stars are created when large stars reach the end of their life cycles and explode in a supernova event that leaves behind their core. The extremely high gravity of neutron stars is what makes them so unique—they have masses 1.4 to 2 times greater than our Sun but are only 20 kilometers across!
How Does Einstein@Home Work?
Einstein@Home searches data from the LIGO gravitational-wave detectors to conduct all-sky searches for continuous gravitational waves. While no such signal has yet been detected, the upper limits set by Einstein@Home analyses provide astrophysical constraints on the Galactic population of spinning neutron stars. This project also looks at data from large radio telescopes which detect neutron stars by their pulsed radio emission as radio pulsars, and from a gamma-ray telescope that detects them by their pulsed gamma-ray emission as gamma-ray pulsars.
Why Is This Important?
By understanding these neutron stars and detecting signals from them, we can gain insight into some of the most mysterious forces at work in our universe. For example, by studying rotating neutron stars we can learn more about gravity waves, which could help us understand more about dark energy and dark matter—two mysterious substances that make up most of our universe but remain largely unknown to scientists today.
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