Constraining the equation of state of neutron stars using multimessenger observations

TL;DR

This paper discusses how astrophysical observations of neutron stars can be used to constrain their equation of state, addressing uncertainties in dense matter physics and the challenges of theoretical modeling.

Contribution

It introduces methods to translate neutron star observational data into constraints on the equation of state, advancing understanding of dense matter in astrophysics.

Findings

Constraints on neutron star matter properties derived from observations

Improved models linking observables to the equation of state

Insights into the possible composition of neutron star cores

Abstract

Neutron stars are the densest objects known in our visible universe. Properties of matter inside a neutron star are encoded in its equation of state, which has wide-ranging uncertainty from a theoretical perspective. With the current understanding of quantum chromodynamics, it is hard to determine the interactions of neutron star matter at such high densities. Also performing many body calculations is computationally intractable. Besides the constitution of the neutron star core is highly speculative -- it is not ruled out that it contains exotic matter like strange baryons, meson condensates, quark matter, etc. Although the matter inside the neutron star is extremely dense, but the temperature of this object is very cold in most of its life span. We cannot produce such dense but rather cold material in our laboratory. Since probing the physics of neutron star matter is inaccessible by our earth based experiments, we look for astrophysical observations of neutron stars. This thesis deals with the theoretical and computational techniques required to translate neutron star observables from astrophysical observations to its equation of state.