Quote:
Originally Posted by jungle11
Another one Steven.
Maybe 6 months ago on science daily, there was an article stating that there might possibly be a class of star formed by the gravitational collapse of a large star during a supernova, that was more dense than a neutron star (a quark star)
I believe the neutron star exists first, and then collapses further - I wonder if this does indeed break the Pauli exclusion principle - but then again, a quark star proberly is a long shot.
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Greg,
In general the Pauli exclusion principle limits the number of ways fundamental or subatomic particles can interact with each other to from more complex matter.
It doesn't apply in the reverse case, where matter for example is broken down into it's constituent particles.
Neutrons are composed of three quarks, the quarks can only combine as determined by the Pauli exclusion principle amongst other things. However there is nothing preventing the neutron being split into it's constituent quarks.
On a larger scale this also applies to the transformation of a neutron star into a quark star (where the quark star is composed of free quarks), assuming of course they exist...
Regards
Steven