Scientists capture 'perfect fluids' sounds similar to neutron stars' from early universe

Physicists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have captured the "perfect" fluids sounds from the heart of the neutron star that helped them determine stars’ viscosity. Determined by the laws of quantum mechanics, a rare fluid behaviour occurs in the neutron stars inside the soupy plasma of the early universe, which carries ‘strong interacting fluids’.

Scientists have now published a report, cracking the mysterious sound of the perfect fluid of the dense clusters of remnant material of neutron stars in the laboratory. In an unusual method, physicists recreated the fluid that flows inside the neutron stars with the smallest amount of friction or viscosity.

The team used the carefully controlled gas of elementary particles known as fermions. A glissando of sound waves at particular frequencies was recorded, in which the gas resonated like a plucked string. Using this experiment, the researchers measured the sound diffusion of thousands of sound waves that quickly dissipated in the gas, directly altering the material’s viscosity.

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A fundamental value known as Planck’s constant was calculated from fluid’s sound diffusion which was recorded to be as low as a "quantum" amount of friction. Scientists then calculated the mass of the individual fermions. The fundamental value showed that the interacting fermion gas behaves like a perfect fluid, such as that inside the neutron stars, and hence the sound created was similar to the plasma in the early universe. 

"It is quite difficult to listen to a neutron star, people can mimic it in a lab using atoms, shake that atomic soup and listen to it, and know-how a neutron star would sound," said Physicists at MIT, Thomas A. Frank.

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Study of the 'viscosity'

The study, published in the journal Science, concluded that the scientists measured the perfect fluid in the neutron stars by measuring the sound diffusion for the first time. The set up also revealed the quantum friction within neutron stars, which otherwise would be impossible to calculate in the universe.

"It’s quite difficult to listen to a neutron star," says Martin Zwierlein, the Thomas A. Frank Professor of Physics at MIT. Zwierlein also estimated the neutron stars’ frequency would be similar to that of the gas. "If you could get your ear close without being ripped apart by gravity," he stressed. The results will help scientists in further study of the viscosity in neutron stars. 

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