Composition of scalar mesons and their effects on nuclear matter properties in an extended linear sigma model

TL;DR

This paper refines an extended linear sigma model with baryons to better understand the roles of scalar mesons in nuclear matter and neutron star properties, predicting behaviors consistent with recent astrophysical observations.

Contribution

It introduces flavor structures from antisymmetric tensors into the model, improving parameter fitting and linking meson interactions to neutron star observations.

Findings

Nuclear matter properties at saturation density match empirical values.

Neutron star structures are sensitive to iso-vector meson couplings.

Sound velocity approaches the conformal limit at high densities.

Abstract

It has been argued that the iso-scalar and iso-vector mesons play significant roles in nuclear matter and neutron star structures. We improve the extended linear sigma model with baryons, proposed in our previous work, by introducing the flavor structures constructed from antisymmetric tensors of chiral representations to study these physics. The parameter space of this model is refined with well-reproduced nuclear matter properties at saturation density by the lowest order Lagrangian, ensuring consistency with vacuum results, such as $f_\pi \approx 134 \, \text{MeV}$. The anticipated plateau-like behaviors of the symmetry energy are predicted at intermediate densities, which is crucial for the consistency of GW170817 and the neutron skin thickness of $\text{Pb}^{208}$. Subsequently, neutron star structures are calculated using several parameter sets, and the results for the nuclear matter properties at saturation density align with empirical values. It is found that the neutron star structures are sensitive to the couplings between the iso-vector $a_0$ meson and nucleons and the four-vector meson couplings: small values of both are favorable. Meanwhile, nuclear matter properties at saturation density favor larger values of the latter and are not sensitive to the former. This signifies the statistical significance of neutron star observations when obtaining realistic chiral effective field theories or models at various densities. The parameter set favored by neutron star observations also aligns the behavior of the sound velocity with the conformal limit at high densities relevant to cores of massive stars. It is hoped that the results of this work can guide future studies on the relationship between the microscopic symmetry of strong interactions and macroscopic phenomena.