Speaker: Dr. Stephan Rosswog

Neutron star mergers as laboratories for extreme physics Binary systems that contain two neutron stars are exciting sources of gravitational waves. Their final mergers had long been suspected to produce gravitational waves, gamma ray bursts and -by some- to produce heavy "rapid neutron capture" or "r-process" elements. But the confirmation of these theoretical ideas had to wait until the summer of 2017, when for the first time a neutron star merger was detected in both gravitational and electromagnetic waves. Modelling such encounters is a serious challenge. It requires a multitude of physics ingredients from relativistic gravity, over nuclear matter equations of state to various neutrino processes. In addition, a broad range of length and time scales is involved which places high demands on the simulation methodology. In my talk, I will give a broad overview over the exiting questions related to neutron star mergers, I will introduce a new numerical relativity approach and discuss a new merger scenario.