Can the maximum mass of neutron stars rule out any equation of state of dense stellar matter before gravity is well understood?

TL;DR

This paper argues that the maximum mass of neutron stars cannot definitively rule out any dense matter equations of state before fully understanding gravity, by showing that gravitational modifications can reconcile soft EOSs with high-mass observations.

Contribution

It demonstrates that Yukawa gravitational corrections can allow soft EOS models to match observed high neutron star masses, challenging previous constraints.

Findings

Yukawa corrections can reconcile soft EOSs with high neutron star masses

The observed 1.97 solar mass neutron star can be explained with modified gravity

Soft EOSs remain viable for dense matter modeling with gravity modifications

Abstract

Probably No! As an example, using soft EOSs consistent with existing terrestrial nuclear laboratory experiments for hybrid neutron stars containing a quark core described with MIT bag model using reasonable parameters, we show that the recently discovered new holder of neutron star maximum mass PSR J1614-2230 of $1.97\pm0.04M_{\odot}$ can be well described by incorporating a Yukawa gravitational correction that is consistent with existing constraints from neutron-proton and neutron-lead scatterings as well as the spectroscopy of antiproton atoms.