Constraints on Nuclear Saturation Properties from Terrestrial Experiments and Astrophysical Observations of Neutron Stars

TL;DR

This paper combines terrestrial experiments and astrophysical observations to constrain the nuclear equation of state, revealing the impact of hyperons and symmetry energy parameters on neutron star properties.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive analysis using relativistic mean-field models to integrate experimental and astrophysical data for constraining nuclear matter properties.

Findings

Astrophysical data significantly restrict the nuclear EoS.

Hyperons in neutron star cores lead to a softer EoS and tighter constraints.

Limits on the curvature of nuclear symmetry energy are established.

Abstract

Taking into account the terrestrial experiments and the recent astrophysical observations of neutron stars and gravitational-wave signals, we impose restrictions on the equation of state (EoS) for isospin-asymmetric nuclear matter. Using the relativistic mean-field model with SU(3) flavor symmetry, we investigate the impacts of effective nucleon mass, nuclear incompressibility, and slope parameter of nuclear symmetry energy on the nuclear and neutron-star properties. It is found that the astrophysical information of massive neutron stars and tidal deformabilities as well as the nuclear experimental data plays an important role to restrict the EoS for neutron stars. Especially, the softness of the nuclear EoS due to the existence of hyperons in the core gives stringent constraints on those physical quantities. Furthermore, it is possible to put limits on the curvature parameter of nuclear symmetry energy by means of the nuclear and astrophysical calculations.