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Abstract Over the past decade, an abundance of information from neutron-star observations, nuclear experiments and theory has transformed our efforts to elucidate the properties of dense matter. However, at high densities relevant to the cores of neutron stars, substantial uncertainty about the dense matter equation of state (EoS) remains. In this work, we present a semiparametric equation of state framework aimed at better integrating knowledge across these domains in astrophysical inference. We use a Meta-model and realistic crust at low densities, and Gaussian Process extensions at high densities. Comparisons between our semiparametric framework to fully nonparametric EoS representations show that imposing nuclear theoretical and experimental constraints through the Meta-model up to nuclear saturation density results in constraints on the pressure up to twice nuclear saturation density. We also show that our Gaussian Process trained on EoS models with nucleonic, hyperonic, and quark compositions extends the range of EoS explored at high density compared to a piecewise polytropic extension schema, under the requirements of causality of matter and of supporting the existence of heavy pulsars. We find that maximum TOV masses above $$3.2 M_{\odot}$$ can be supported by causal EoS compatible with nuclear constraints at low densities. We then combine information from existing observations of heavy pulsar masses, gravitational waves emitted from binary neutron star mergers, and X-ray pulse profile modeling of millisecond pulsars within a Bayesian inference scheme using our semiparametric EoS prior. With information from all public NICER pulsars (including PSR J0030$$+$$0451, PSR J0740$$+$$6620, PSR J0437-4715, and PSR J0614-3329), we find an astrophysically favored pressure at two times nuclear saturation density of $$P(2\rho_{\rm nuc}) = 1.98^{+2.13}_{-1.08}\times10^{34}$$ dyn/cm$$^{2}$$, a radius of a $$1.4 M_{\odot}$$ neutron star value of $$R_{1.4} = 11.4^{+0.98}_{-0.60}$$\;km, and $$M_{\rm max} = 2.31_{-0.23}^{+0.35} M_{\odot}$$ at the 90\% credible level.
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Limiting masses and radii of neutron stars and their implications
We combine equation of state of dense matter up to twice nuclear saturation density (nsat = 0.16 fm−3 ) obtained using chiral effective field theory (χEFT), and recent observations of neutron stars to gain insights about the high-density matter encountered in their cores. A key element in our study is the recent Bayesian analysis of correlated EFT truncation errors based on order-byorder calculations up to next-to-next-to-next-to-leading order in the χEFT expansion. We refine the bounds on the maximum mass imposed by causality at high densities, and provide stringent limits on the maximum and minimum radii of ∼ 1.4 M and ∼ 2.0 M stars. Including χEFT predictions from nsat to 2 nsat reduces the permitted ranges of the radius of a 1.4 M star, R1.4, by ∼ 3.5 km. If observations indicate R1.4 < 11.2 km, our study implies that either the squared speed of sound c 2 s > 1/2 for densities above 2 nsat, or that χEFT breaks down below 2 nsat. We also comment on the nature of the secondary compact object in GW190814 with mass ' 2.6 M , and discuss the implications of massive neutron stars > 2.1 M (2.6 M ) in future radio and gravitational-wave searches. Some form of strongly interacting matter with c 2 s > 0.35 (0.55) must be realized in the cores of such massive neutron stars. In the absence of phase transitions below 2 nsat, the small tidal deformability inferred from GW170817 lends support for the relatively small pressure predicted by χEFT for the baryon density nB in the range 1−2 nsat. Together they imply that the rapid stiffening required to support a high maximum mass should occur only when nB & 1.5 − 1.8 nsat.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1927130
- PAR ID:
- 10194465
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- ArXivorg
- ISSN:
- 2331-8422
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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