Compress almost anything to very high densities and electrons react with protons to make neutron rich matter.  This material is at the heart of many fundamental questions in nuclear physics and astrophysics.  What are the high-density phases of QCD? Where did the chemical elements come from? What is the structure of many compact and energetic objects in the heavens, and what determines their electromagnetic, neutrino, and gravitational-wave radiations?  We describe how the thickness of the neutron skin of the heavy nucleus 208Pb is being measured with parity violating electron scattering at Jefferson Laboratory and how the skins of very neutron rich nuclei can be studied at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams.  These skins depend on the pressure of neutron rich matter and have important implications for the structure of neutron stars.  Neutrinos from the next galactic supernova will reveal important information on correlations and clustering in neutron rich matter.  Finally searches for continuous gravitational waves are constraining “mountains” on neutron stars and the properties of solid neutron rich matter.

                                                                                                                                                              Host: Prof. Lie-Wen Chen