Holographic cold dense matter constrained by neutron stars

TL;DR

This paper uses holographic QCD models within Einstein-Maxwell-dilaton and KKSS frameworks to construct a neutron star equation of state, aligning with astrophysical data and suggesting matter remains confined in the core.

Contribution

It introduces a novel holographic approach combining EMD and KKSS models to constrain neutron star matter, differing from previous DBI-based methods.

Findings

Hybrid EoS consistent with astrophysical constraints

Maximum neutron star mass around 2.5 solar masses

Stable nuclear matter branch with no favored quark matter core

Abstract

The equation of state (EoS) for cold dense matter inside neutron stars is investigated by using holographic QCD models in the framework of the Einstein-Maxwell-dilaton (EMD) system and the improved Karch-Katz-Son-Stephanov (KKSS) action for matter part. This method of describing holographic nuclear matter in the EMD$+$KKSS framework is different from that by using the Dirac-Born-Infeld (DBI) action and the Chern-Simons (CS) terms. Combining with the Hebeler-Lattimer-Pethick-Schwenk (HLPS) intermediate equation of state (EoS), the hybrid EoS inside the neutron stars is constructed. The obtained hybrid EoS is located in the range that is defined by the low-density chiral effective theory, the high-density perturbative QCD, and the polytropic interpolations between them, and is constrained by the astrophysics observations. The square of the sound velocity reaches a maximum value larger than $0.8$ in the region of $2-5$ times the saturation baryon number density and approaches the conformal limit at the high baryon density range. The mass-radius relation and the tidal deformability of the neutron stars are in agreement with astrophysical measurements. The possible maximum mass for the neutron star is about $2.5 M_{\odot}$ and the radius is about $12 \mathrm{km}$ then. It is noticed that the holographic quark matter branch in the mass-radius relation is always unstable and the holographic nuclear matter can produce a stable branch. These results indicate that even in the core of the NS, the matter is still in the confinement phase and the quark matter is not favored.