Bayesian Survey of the Dense Matter Equation of State built upon Skyrme effective interactions

TL;DR

This paper employs a Bayesian approach with Skyrme interactions to constrain the neutron star equation of state, highlighting the importance of correlations in pure neutron matter energy at various densities for understanding dense nuclear matter.

Contribution

It introduces a Bayesian framework that incorporates correlations in neutron matter properties to better constrain the neutron star EOS using Skyrme models.

Findings

Correlations among neutron matter energies at different densities significantly constrain the EOS.

Effective neutron mass at 0.16 fm$^{-3}$ correlates with key neutron star properties.

The approach improves understanding of dense nuclear matter and neutron star characteristics.

Abstract

The non-relativistic model of nuclear matter with zero-range Skyrme interactions is employed within a Bayesian approach in order to study the behavior of neutron stars (NSs) equation of state (EOS). A minimal number of constraints from nuclear physics and ab initio calculations of pure neutron matter (PNM) are imposed together with causality and a lower limit on the maximum mass of NS to all our models. Our key result is that accounting for correlations among the values that the energy per neutron in PNM takes at various densities, and that are typically disregarded, efficiently constrains the behavior of the EOS at high densities. A series of global NS properties, e.g., maximum mass, central density of the maximum mass configuration, minimum NS mass that allows for direct URCA, radii of intermediate and massive NS, appear to be correlated with the value of effective neutron mass in PNM at 0.16 fm$^{-3}$. Together with similar studies in the literature our work contributes to a better understanding of the NS EOS as well as its link with the properties of dense nuclear matter.