Neutron stars constitution

AGB stars constitute excellent laboratories to test the theory of stellar evolution and nucleosynthesis. Their particular internal structure allows two important processes to occur in them. First is the so-called 3(,ldredge-up (3DUP), a mixing mechanism in which the convective envelope penetrates the interior of the star after each thermal instability in the He-shell (thermal pulse, TP). The other is the activation of the s-process synthesis from alpha captures on 13C or/and 22Ne nuclei that generate the necessary neutrons which are subsequently captured by iron-peak nuclei. The repeated operation of TPs and the 3DUP episodes enriches the stellar envelope in newly synthesized elements and transforms the star into a carbon star, if the quantity of carbon added into the envelope is sufficient to increase the C/O ratio above unity. In that way, the atmosphere becomes enriched with the ashes of the above nucleosynthesis processes which can then be detected spectroscopically. 

It can be inferred from O Eq. (6.13) that strongly coupled plasmas tend to be cold and dense, whereas weakly coupled plasmas are diffuse and hot. Examples of strongly coupled plasmas include solid-density laser ablation plasmas, the very "cold (i.e., with kinetic temperatures similar to the ionization energy) plasmas found in "high pressure arc discharges, and the plasmas which constitute the atmospheres of collapsed objects such as white dwarfs and neutron stars. On the other hand, the hot diffuse plasmas - typically encountered in ionospheric physics, astrophysics, nuclear fusion, and space plasma physics — are invariably weakly coupled. 

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