Found. Phys.

[fflo]

"According to prevailing theory, relativistic degenerate stars with masses beyond the Chandrasekhar and Oppenheimer-Volkoff (OV) limits cannot achieve hydrostatic equilibrium through either electron or neutron degeneracy pressure and must collapse to form stellar black holes. In such end states, all matter and energy within the Schwarzschild horizon descend into a central singularity. Avoidance of this fate is a hoped-for outcome of the quantization of gravity, an as-yet incomplete undertaking. Recent studies, however, suggest the possibility that known quantum processes may intervene to arrest complete collapse, thereby leading to equilibrium states of macroscopic size and finite density. I describe here one such process which entails pairing (or other even-numbered association) of neutrons (or constituent quarks in the event of nucleon disruption) to form a condensate of composite bosons in equilibrium with a core of degenerate fermions. This process is analogous to, but not identical with, [somehow pulling yourself up by your freakin' bootstraps]. ... The outcome is neither a black hole nor a neutron star, but a novel end state, a 'fermicon star,' with unusual physical properties."

Mark P. Silverman
Foundations of Physics 37 (2007), no. 4-5, p. 632

Comments

[infinitepresent.livejournal.com]

Is there really a unit of measure 'fermions,' named for the nuclear physicist Enrico Fermi? And from the compositions of these 'fermions,' does he really get his own form of star?

I'm not really curious in any of the above, I'm just looking for excuses to use the word 'fermion,' which may be my new word of the month.

I did a rock opera in high school about a boy from the other side of the tracks who attends Enrico Fermi High (cue the chorus) with the popular well-to-do girl. He drives his motorbike into the nuclear reactor out of foolish teenage lust for her, and we all learn the valuable lesson that even zombies deserve love.

[fflo.livejournal.com]

But, lemme guess, the zombie ends up getting only some zombie version of love and they all die horrible painful deaths either immediately afterwards or after a chasm of agony between the zombie love and the horrible painful death?

[peteralway.livejournal.com]

A fermion isn't a unit of measure. It's a class of particle. I confess I never reached the level of studying hardcore subatomic particles when I got my physics degree, so I had to do a little wikipediating. Fermions include protons, neutrons, and electrons, as well as quarks that make up the protons and neutrons--what you generally think of as the matter that makes up atoms. There are also some other more obscure and rare fermions.

The other big category of particles are bosons, which include things like photons (light) and other force-carriers that you tend to think of more as energy, as well as some other rare and obscure bosons.

So if you want to drop "fermion" correctly in English-major conversation, you'd say something like, "he felt it in his every molecule, in his very atoms, down to the last fermion"