Binary Compact Star Mergers and the Phase Diagram of Quantum Chromodynamics

This article is dedicated to one of my doctor fathers, Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Walter Greiner, whom I first met during my undergraduate studies at the Goethe University Frankfurt in 1990. During this time Walter Greiner gave his legendary 5-semester course on theoretical physics and I had the fortune to be able to attend his first lecture on Mechanic I. Greiner’s fashion and manner of presenting the philosophical and mathematical backgrounds of theoretical physics in a detailed way was outstanding. I also enjoyed his interposed personal stories on topics like e.g. scientific conferences and the wilderness of Africa’s nature. Between 1998 and 2004 I worked as a doctoral student in his large international group in the Institute of Theoretical Physics (Campus Bockenheim). The present article summarizes some of the scientific results I have obtained during this period under his supervision.