A general, scale-independent description of the sound speed in neutron stars

TL;DR

This paper introduces a scale-independent model for the sound speed in neutron stars, revealing core and outer layer properties, and provides an analytic expression for the sound speed profile based on mass.

Contribution

It presents a novel, scale-independent description of neutron star sound speed using a large set of equations of state, uncovering new insights into stellar core and surface properties.

Findings

Light stars have stiff cores and soft outer layers.

Maximum sound speed shifts from center to outer layers as mass increases.

Sound speed approaches 1/2 at the maximum mass limit.

Abstract

Using more than a million randomly generated equations of state that satisfy theoretical and observational constraints we construct a novel, scale-independent description of the sound speed in neutron stars where the latter is expressed in a unit-cube spanning the normalised radius, $r/R$, and the mass normalized to the maximum one, $M/M_{\rm TOV}$. From this generic representation, a number of interesting and surprising results can be deduced. In particular, we find that light (heavy) stars have stiff (soft) cores and soft (stiff) outer layers, respectively, or that the maximum of the sound speed is located at the center of light stars but moves to the outer layers for stars with $M/M_{\rm TOV}\gtrsim0.7$, reaching a constant value of $c_s^2=1/2$ as $M\to M_{\rm TOV}$. We also show that the sound speed decreases below the conformal limit $c_s^2=1/3$ at the center of stars with $M=M_{\rm TOV}$. Finally, we construct an analytic expression that accurately describes the radial dependence of the sound speed as a function of the neutron-star mass, thus providing an estimate of the maximum sound speed expected in a neutron star.