3 ms·
Why do neutron stars have "crusts", as opposed to behaving more like a liquid?
by emtel 5y ago
Why do neutron stars have "crusts", as opposed to behaving more like a liquid?
- ars 5y agoBecause the pressure on the surface is only from one side. It's exactly like surface tension in water.
- emtel 5y agoI don't think that's what causes surface tension in water. However, it turns out that surface tension is more mysterious than I thought. I thought surface tension was caused by inter-molecular attraction due to water being a polar molecule, which seemingly wouldn't apply to a neutron star. But this thread https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/2615/are-there-any-liquids-with-zero-surface-tension https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/2615/are-there-a... contains a reply saying that surface tension is an inevitable result of the interface between two materials, and there are no liquids (even superfluids, apparently) that don't have surface tension. In any case I don't see why we'd expect condensed matter physics to be generalizable to neutronium...