Chiral Effective Field Theory and the High-Density Nuclear Equation of State

TL;DR

This paper reviews recent advances in chiral effective field theory for modeling the high-density nuclear equation of state, emphasizing many-body perturbation theory and its role in connecting theory with observations of neutron stars.

Contribution

It highlights the development of chiral effective field theory and many-body perturbation theory as tools for understanding hot, dense nuclear matter with quantified uncertainties.

Findings

Effective field theory enables meaningful comparisons between theory, experiments, and observations.

Many-body perturbation theory provides an efficient computational approach.

Recent developments improve constraints on the nuclear equation of state.

Abstract

Born in the aftermath of core collapse supernovae, neutron stars contain matter under extraordinary conditions of density and temperature that are difficult to reproduce in the laboratory. In recent years, neutron star observations have begun to yield novel insights into the nature of strongly interacting matter in the high-density regime where current theoretical models are challenged. At the same time, chiral effective field theory has developed into a powerful framework to study nuclear matter properties with quantified uncertainties in the moderate-density regime for modeling neutron stars. In this article, we review recent developments in chiral effective field theory and focus on many-body perturbation theory as a computationally efficient tool for calculating the properties of hot and dense nuclear matter. We also demonstrate how effective field theory enables statistically meaningful comparisons between nuclear theory predictions, nuclear experiments, and observational constraints on the nuclear equation of state.