Exploring Strong Interactions in Nuclei and Neutron Stars

Delve into a fascinating physics colloquium that explores the fundamental strong interactions governing both atomic nuclei and neutron stars. Learn how these incredibly dense celestial objects, measuring only 12 km in radius but weighing up to twice our Sun's mass, are stabilized by the same forces present in atomic nuclei. Follow along as Professor Achim Schwenk from TU Darmstadt discusses recent breakthroughs in understanding these interactions, achieved through combining effective field theories with advanced many-body approaches and insights from experimental observations. Discover the current challenges and progress in studying these fundamental forces that shape our Universe, with particular focus on how they manifest in both the microscopic realm of nuclear physics and the astronomical scale of neutron stars.