Unified equation of state for neutron stars on a microscopic basis

TL;DR

This paper presents a new microscopic equation of state for neutron stars, derived from advanced nuclear calculations, that accurately models the star's structure and matches observational constraints.

Contribution

It introduces a unified, microscopic EoS for all neutron star regions based on Brueckner-Hartree-Fock calculations and nuclear energy density functionals, improving upon previous models.

Findings

Predicts nuclear pasta in the crust at specific densities.

Achieves a maximum neutron star mass of 2 solar masses.

Provides neutron star radii consistent with observations.

Abstract

We derive a new equation of state (EoS) for neutron stars (NS) from the outer crust to the core based on modern microscopic Brueckner-Hartree-Fock (BHF) calculations using the Argonne $v_{18}$ potential plus three-body forces computed with the Urbana model. To deal with the inhomogeneous structures of matter in the NS crust, we use the recent Barcelona-Catania-Paris-Madrid (BCPM) nuclear energy density functional that is directly based on the same microscopic BHF calculations, and which is able to reproduce the ground-state properties of nuclei along the periodic table. The EoS of the outer crust requires the masses of neutron-rich nuclei, which are obtained through Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov calculations with the BCPM functional when they are unknown experimentally. To compute the inner crust, Thomas-Fermi calculations in Wigner-Seitz cells are performed with the same functional. Existence of nuclear pasta is predicted in a range of average baryon densities between $\simeq$0.067 fm$^{-3}$ and $\simeq$0.0825 fm$^{-3}$, where the transition to the core takes place. The NS core is computed from the nuclear EoS of the BHF calculation assuming non-exotic constituents (core of $npe\mu$ matter). In each region of the star, we discuss the comparison of the new EoS with previous EoSes for the complete NS structure, in particular, with the Lattimer-Swesty EoS and with the Shen et al. EoS widely used in astrophysical calculations. The new microscopically derived EoS fulfills at the same time a NS maximum mass of 2~$M_\odot$ with a radius of 10 km, and a 1.5~$M_\odot$ NS with a radius of 11.7 km.