Electrically Charged Compact Stars

We review here the classical argument used to justify the electrical neutrality of stars and show that if the pressure and density of the matter and gravitational field inside the star are large, then a charge and a strong electric field can be present. For a neutron star with high pressure (~ 10^{33} to 10^{35} dynes /cm^2) and strong gravitational field (~ 10^{14} cm/s^2), these conditions are satisfied. The hydrostatic equation which arises from general relativity, is modified considerably to meet the requirements of the inclusion of the charge. In order to see any appreciable effect on the phenomenology of the neutron stars, the charge and the electrical fields have to be huge (~ 10^{21} Volts/cm). These stars are not however stable from the viewpoint that each charged particle is unbound to the uncharged particles, and thus the system collapses one step further to a charged black hole