2024/12/31 by Francesca Sammarruca, Sammarruca, Francesca, Tomiwa Ajagbonna +1 · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #FOS: Physical sciences #Nuclear Theory (nucl-th) #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2501.00668
openalex publication_date 2024/12/31 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The profile of a neutron star probes a very large range of densities, from the density of iron up to several times the density of saturated nuclear matter, and thus no theory of hadrons can be considered reliable if extended to those regions. We emphasize the importance of taking contemporary ab initio theories of nuclear and neutron matter as the baseline for any extension method, which will unavoidably involve some degree of phenomenology. We discuss how microscopic theory, on the one end, with causality and maximum-mass constraints, on the other, set strong boundaries to the high-density equation of state. We present our latest neutron star predictions where we combine polytropic extensions and parametrizations guided by speed of sound considerations. The predictions we show include our baseline neutron star cooling curves.