Lambda-nuclear interactions and hyperon puzzle in neutron stars

TL;DR

This paper uses Brueckner theory with chiral EFT interactions to study Lambda hyperons in dense matter, suggesting hyperons form only at very high densities in neutron stars, which may resolve the hyperon puzzle.

Contribution

It demonstrates that hyperon-nucleon interactions derived from SU(3) chiral EFT lead to strongly repulsive in-medium Lambda potentials at high densities, impacting neutron star composition.

Findings

Lambda potential becomes strongly repulsive at high densities

Adding three-body forces increases repulsion

Hyperon formation in neutron stars is delayed to higher densities

Abstract

Brueckner theory is used to investigate the in-medium properties of a $\Lambda$-hyperon in nuclear and neutron matter, based on hyperon-nucleon interactions derived within SU(3) chiral effective field theory (EFT). It is shown that the resulting $\Lambda$ single-particle potential $U_\Lambda(p_\Lambda =0,\rho)$ becomes strongly repulsive for densities $\rho$ of two-to-three times that of normal nuclear matter. Adding a density-dependent effective $\Lambda N$-interaction constructed from chiral $\Lambda NN$ three-body forces increases the repulsion further. Consequences of these findings for neutron stars are discussed. It is argued that for hyperon-nuclear interactions with properties such as those deduced from the SU(3) EFT potentials, the onset for hyperon formation in the core of neutron stars is expected to be shifted to extremely high baryon density, thus potentially resolving the so-called hyperon puzzle.