Microscopic calculation of the equation of state of nuclear matter and neutron star structure

TL;DR

This paper develops a new equation of state for nuclear matter using advanced quantum Monte Carlo methods, enabling more accurate neutron star models and insights into their mass-radius relationships.

Contribution

It introduces a novel nuclear matter equation of state derived from Auxiliary Field Diffusion Monte Carlo calculations, incorporating many-body forces for neutron star modeling.

Findings

Neutron star models with the new EOS show distinct mass-radius relations.

Comparison with other Hamiltonians highlights differences in predicted neutron star properties.

Results improve understanding of nuclear interactions in dense astrophysical objects.

Abstract

We present results for neutron star models constructed with a new equation of state for nuclear matter at zero temperature. The ground state is computed using the Auxiliary Field Diffusion Monte Carlo (AFDMC) technique, with nucleons interacting via a semi-phenomenological Hamiltonian including a realistic two-body interaction. The effect of many-body forces is included by means of additional density-dependent terms in the Hamiltonian. In this letter we compare the properties of the resulting neutron-star models with those obtained using other nuclear Hamiltonians, focusing on the relations between mass and radius, and between the gravitational mass and the baryon number.