How perturbative QCD constrains the Equation of State at Neutron-Star densities

TL;DR

This paper shows how high-density perturbative QCD calculations can be used to constrain the neutron-star equation of state at lower densities, providing theoretical bounds independent of astrophysical data.

Contribution

It introduces a method to propagate pQCD constraints from high densities to neutron-star densities using thermodynamic potentials and stability conditions.

Findings

At 5 times nuclear saturation density, at least 65% of the EoS parameter space is excluded.

The approach constrains the EoS starting from densities around twice the nuclear saturation density.

Results are independent of astrophysical observations and useful for testing gravity and new physics theories.

Abstract

We demonstrate in a general and analytic way how high-density information about the equation of state (EoS) of strongly interacting matter obtained using perturbative Quantum Chromodynamics (pQCD) constrains the same EoS at densities reachable in physical neutron stars. Our approach is based on utilizing the full information of the thermodynamic potentials at the high-density limit together with thermodynamic stability and causality. This requires considering the pressure as a function of chemical potential $p(\mu)$ instead of the commonly used pressure as a function of energy density $p(\epsilon)$. The results can be used to propagate the pQCD calculations reliable around 40$n_s$ to lower densities in the most conservative way possible. We constrain the EoS starting from only few times the nuclear saturation density $n \gtrsim 2.2 n_s$ and at $n = 5 n_s$ we exclude at least 65% of otherwise allowed area in the $(\epsilon - p)$-plane. This provides information complementary to astrophysical observations that should be taken into account in any complete statistical inference study of the EoS. These purely theoretical results are independent of astrophysical neutron-star input, and hence, they can also be used to test theories of modified gravity and BSM physics in neutron stars.