> it is very much possible that neutrons transition directly into a black hole before entering a new state
At least the neutrons that start out being outside the Schwarzschild radius of the black-hole-to-be cannot transition directly into being in a black hole state because they have to first move from where they are to the event horizon, and that has to take some non-zero amount of time since they can't exceed the speed of light on the way to the event horizon.
It's possible that with the degeneracy pressure exceeded they just don't become something else, but instead simply move... through each other? That makes little sense. Since they are made up of quarks what makes sense instead is that they become quark soup on the way to the event horizon. Though there are other possibilities too. Maybe all the neutrons turn to photons going towards the incipient black hole and without becoming quark soup first, they they can travel through each other.
> Unfortunately, we have no idea about the equation of state and this stuff is very far beyond anything that could be studied experimentally in a collider. It's admittedly a fascinating topic, but there is very little rigorous science surrounding it.
The best we could do is check different theories for consistency, but we can't test them unless those theories make predictions about electromagnetic emissions or gravity wave emissions from a neutron star collapse that we might be able to observe and which could be used to test those predictions.
>they have to first move from where they are to the event horizon
No. I mean, from their point of view it would seem they kind of have to do, but there are some serious open questions about what happens here exactly. Regardless, as an outside observer, you would never see them actually move behind the horizon, you would only see the black hole grow beyond the point where they used to be. For a detailed description of all this you can check out chapter 32 of MTW's Gravitation.
>Since they are made up of quarks what makes sense instead is that they become quark soup on the way to the event horizon
Again, this depends on the equation of state and the existance and ___location of transition points. We don't know any of those things - but we do know that any realistic model must include general relativity, because quantum effects alone are no longer sufficient to describe what happens here. At that level all bets are off.
>The best we could do is check different theories for consistency
That is one thing. But it is also kind of moot since this is where string theory has been stuck for half a century now.
At least the neutrons that start out being outside the Schwarzschild radius of the black-hole-to-be cannot transition directly into being in a black hole state because they have to first move from where they are to the event horizon, and that has to take some non-zero amount of time since they can't exceed the speed of light on the way to the event horizon.
It's possible that with the degeneracy pressure exceeded they just don't become something else, but instead simply move... through each other? That makes little sense. Since they are made up of quarks what makes sense instead is that they become quark soup on the way to the event horizon. Though there are other possibilities too. Maybe all the neutrons turn to photons going towards the incipient black hole and without becoming quark soup first, they they can travel through each other.
> Unfortunately, we have no idea about the equation of state and this stuff is very far beyond anything that could be studied experimentally in a collider. It's admittedly a fascinating topic, but there is very little rigorous science surrounding it.
The best we could do is check different theories for consistency, but we can't test them unless those theories make predictions about electromagnetic emissions or gravity wave emissions from a neutron star collapse that we might be able to observe and which could be used to test those predictions.