Neutron Stars in the Relativistic Hartree-Fock Theory and Hadron-Quark Phase Transition

TL;DR

This paper uses the relativistic Hartree-Fock theory to study neutron star properties and examines the hadron-quark phase transition, providing insights into their maximum mass, radius, and composition.

Contribution

It applies the density-dependent relativistic Hartree-Fock theory to neutron stars and compares results with mean field theory, also analyzing the hadron-quark phase transition using the MIT bag model.

Findings

Maximum neutron star mass between 2.3 and 2.5 solar masses

Neutron star radii between 11.7 and 12.5 km

Higher proton, electron, and muon fractions at high densities

Abstract

Based on the density-dependent relativistic Hartree-Fock theory (DDRHF) for hadronic matter, the properties of neutron stars have been studied and compared with the results from the density-dependent relativistic mean field theory (DDRMF). Though similar equations of state are obtained, DDRHF calculations give larger fractions of proton, electron and muon at high baryon density for neutron star matter than the ones from DDRMF. The maximum masses of neutron stars lie between 2.3 M$_\odot$ and 2.5 M$_\odot$, and the corresponding radii between 11.7 km and 12.5 km. In addition, the phase transition from hadronic matter to quark matter in neutron stars is studied by using the MIT bag model for the quark phase. The transition is studied in both Gibbs and Maxwell constructions.