The PHAROS (Physics and Astrophysics of Neutron Stars) multimessenger network is a four-year ESF-COST Action (Autumn 2017 - Spring 2022), which aims to study neutron stars using a multidisciplinary approach. Comprising 400 scientists from 30 different countries, it is led by the IEEC researchers, who play important roles, such as chairing the network and leading Working Group 1.
The recent discovery of gravitational waves allows an unprecedented view of parts of the Universe that were previously invisible. This is bringing into focus the physics of the most compact stars, the neutron stars, whose emission encompasses all available multi-messenger tracers: electromagnetic waves, cosmic rays, neutrinos, and gravitational waves. These relativistic stars are also unique laboratories where not only the most extreme gravity and electromagnetism can be probed, but also the strong and weak interaction can be studied in regimes that, for now, cannot be explored on Earth. The study of these objects transcends the traditional astrophysical approach and requires a multidisciplinary effort ranging from nuclear and particle physics to astrophysics, from experimental to theoretical physics, and from gravitational waves to the electromagnetic spectrum.
PHAROS has the ambitious goal of tackling the main challenges in neutron star physics through an innovative, problem-based approach that revolves around interdisciplinary working groups. Each working group has all the diversified expertise needed to address different open aspects of neutron star physics. At the same time, it provides the different communities with a variety of tools and results prepared in a shared language that is easily accessible to scientists from different areas of physics. In addition, a key priority of this network is the promotion of enthusiastic students and young researchers from all over Europe through training, mobility, equal opportunities, and outreach activities, which grow and spread the innovative multidisciplinary approach of the network. Collaboration is an indispensable feature of innovative and high quality research, and the further we move into specific interesting and complex fields, the more important the need for complementary brains and resources of complementary types of expertise becomes.