Phase transition to color-flavor-locked matter and condensation of Goldstone bosons in neutron star matter

Deconfinement phase transition and condensation of Goldstone bosons in neutron star matter are investigated in a chiral hadronic model (also referred as to the FST model) for the hadronic phase (HP) and in the color-flavor-locked (CFL) quark model for the deconfined quark phase. It is shown that the hadronic-CFL mixed phase (MP) exists in the center of neutron stars with a small bag constant, while the CFL quark matter cannot appear in neutron stars when a large bag constant is taken. Color superconductivity softens the equation of state (EOS) and decreases the maximum mass of neutron stars compared with the unpaired quark matter. The K⁰ condensation in the CFL phase has no remarkable contribution to the EOS and properties of neutron star matter. The EOS and the properties of neutron star matter are sensitive to the bag constant B, the strange quark mass m_s and the color superconducting gap Δ. Increasing B and m_s or decreasing Δ can stiffen the EOS which results in the larger maximum masses of neutron stars.     

Neutron stars with isovector scalar correlations

Neutron stars with the isovector scalar δ-field are studied in the framework of the relativistic mean-field (RMF) approach in a pure-nucleon-plus-lepton scheme. The δ-field leads to a larger repulsion in dense neutron-rich matter and to a definite splitting of proton and neutron effective masses. Both features are influencing the stability conditions of the neutron stars. Two parametrizations for the effective nonlinear Lagrangian density are used to calculate the nuclear equation of state (EOS) and the neutron star properties, and compared to correlated Dirac-Brueckner results. We conclude that in order to reproduce reasonable nuclear structure and neutron star properties within a RMF approach, a density dependence of the coupling constants is required.     

Quark deconfinement in neutron star cores

Whether or not the deconfined quark phase exists in neutron star cores is an open question. We use two realistic effective quark models, the three-flavor Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model and the modified quark-meson coupling model, to describe the neutron star matter. We show that the modified quark-meson coupling model, which is fixed by reproducing the saturation properties of nuclear matter, can be consistent with the experimental constraints from nuclear collisions. After constructing possible hybrid equations of state (EOSes) with an unpaired or color superconducting quark phase with the assumption of the sharp hadron-quark phase transition, we discuss the observational constraints from neutron stars on the EOSes. It is found that the neutron star with pure quark matter core is unstable and the hadronic phase with hyperons is denied, while hybrid EOSes with a two-flavor color superconducting phase or unpaired quark matter phase are both allowed by the tight and most reliable constraints from two stars Ter 5 I and EXO 0748-676. And the hybrid EOS with an unpaired quark matter phase is allowed even compared with the tightest constraint from the most massive pulsar star PSR J0751+1807.     

Isovector Scalar Field Effects in Asymmetric Nuclear Matter

Density-dependent parametrization models of the nucleon-meson coupfing constants, including the isovector scalar δ-field, are applied to asymmetric nuclear matter. The nuclear equation of state （EOS） and the neutron star properties are studied in a relativistic Lagrangian density, using the relativistic mean field （RMF） hadron theory. It is known that the δ-field in the constant coupling scheme leads to a larger repulsion in dense neutron-rich matter and to a definite splitting of proton and neutron effective masses, finally influences the stability of the neutron stars. We use density-dependent models of the nucleon-meson couplings to study the properties of neutron star matter and to reexamine the （~-field effects in asymmetric nuclear matter. Our calculation shows that the stability conditions of the neutron star matter can be improved in presence of the δ-meson in the density-dependent models of the coupling constants. The EOS of nuclear matter strongly depends on the density dependence of the interactions.     

The Properties of Pure Neutron Star

For a given equation of state of neutron matter in the relativistic σ-ω model, ๏๏๏๏๏ including the vacuum fluctuation of neutron and σ meson, the properties of pure neutron star are studied. We find that the maximum mass of pure neutron star is ～ 2.0 M_{\odot}. At the same time, the influence of incompressibility of the nuclear matter to the properties of neutron star is also studied. We also find that the maximum mass of neutron stars decreases as equation of state of neutron matter becomes softer.     

Neutron Star Matter Including Delta Isobars

In this paper a new phase structure of neutron star matter including nucleons and delta isobars is presented.Particle fractions populated and pion condensations in neutron star matter are investigated in this model. The existence of the pion condensations can postpone the appearance of delta isobars. We found that both the pion condensation and reduce of the ratio of delta isobar to nucleons couplings can soften the corresponding equation of state. The maximum masses and their corresponding radii of neutron stars are calculated, and the obtained values are in observational region.     

K0 Condensation in Hyperonic Neutron Star Matter

In the framework of the relativistic mean field theory, we investigate K^0 condensation along with K^- condensation in neutron star matter including the baryon octet. The results show that both K^0 and K^- condensations can occur well in the core of the maximum mass stars for relatively shallow optical potentials of K^- in the range of-100 MeV～ -160 MeV. With the increasing optical potential of K^-, the critical densities of K^- decrease and the species of baryons appearing in neutron stars become fewer. The main role of K^0 condensation is to make the abundances of particles become identical leading to isospin saturated symmetric matter including antikaons, nucleons and hyperons. K^- condensation is chiefly responsible for the softening of the corresponding equation of state, which leads to a large reduction in the maximum masses of neutron stars. In the core of massive neutron stars, neutron star matter including rich particle species, such as antikaons, nucleons and hyperons, may exist.     

Neutron Star Matter Including Delta Isobars

In this paper a new phase structure of neutron star matter including nucleons and delta isobars is presented. Particle fractions populated and pion condensations in neutron star matter are investigated in this model. The existence of the pion condensations can postpone the appearance of delta isobars. We found that both the pion condensation and reduce of the ratio of delta isobar to nucleons couplings can soften the corresponding equation of state. The maximum masses and their corresponding radii of neutron stars are calculated, and the obtained values are in observational region.     

Neutral color-spin-locking phase in neutron stars

We present results for the spin-1 color-spin-locking (CSL) phase using a NJL-type model in two-flavor quark matter for compact stars applications. The CSL condensate is flavor symmetric and therefore charge and color neutrality can easily be satisfied. We find small energy gaps ≃ 1MeV, which make the CSL matter composition and the EoS not very different from the normal quark matter phase. We keep finite quark masses in our calculations and obtain no gapless modes that could have strong consequences in the late cooling of neutron stars. Finally, we show that the region of the phase diagram relevant for neutron star cores, when asymmetric flavor pairing is suppressed, could be covered by the CSL phase.     

Relativistic Mean-Field Approach to Infinite Nuclear Matter and Neutron Star

The properties of infinite nuclear matter and neutron star are studied theoretically in relativistic mean-field (RMF) approach with three typical parameter sets NL1, NL-SH and TM1. It is found that all these new RMF parameter sets can very satisfactorily reproduce the properties of high density matter. Among these parameter sets, TM1, with a nonlinear ω term, reproduces a slightly smaller energy, piessure and neutron star mass than NL-SH and NL1. The ρ meson field has a large influence on the properties of neutron star and infinite nuclear matter. A detailed discussion for the significance of numerical results is also given.     

Hybrid stars

Recently there have been important developments in the determination of neutron star masses which put severe constraints on the composition and equation of state (EOS) of the neutron star matter. Here we study the effect of quark and nuclear matter mixed phase on mass radius relationship of neutron stars employing recent models from two classes of EOS’s and discuss their implications.     

Dirac-Brueckner-Hartree-Fock calculations for isospin asymmetric nuclear matter based on improved approximation schemes

We present Dirac-Brueckner-Hartree-Fock calculations for isospin asymmetric nuclear matter which are based on improved approximations schemes. The potential matrix elements have been adapted for isospin asymmetric nuclear matter in order to account for the proton-neutron mass splitting in a more consistent way. The proton properties are particularly sensitive to this adaption and its consequences, whereas the neutron properties remains almost unaffected in neutron-rich matter. Although at present full Brueckner calculations are still too complex to apply to finite nuclei, these relativistic Brueckner results can be used as a guidance to construct a density-dependent relativistic mean-field theory, which can be applied to finite nuclei. It is found that an accurate reproduction of the Dirac-Brueckner-Hartree-Fock equation of state requires a renormalization of these coupling functions.     

Nuclear matter properties and relativistic mean-field theory

Nuclear matter properties are calculated in the relativistic mean-field theory by using a number of different parameter sets. The result shows that the volume energy a₁ and the symmetry energy J are around the acceptable values 16MeV and 30MeV, respectively; the incompressibility K₀ is unacceptably high in the linear model, but assumes reasonable value if nonlinear terms are included; the density symmetry L is around 100MeV for most parameter sets, and the symmetry incompressibility K _s has positive sign which is opposite to expectations based on the nonrelativistic model. In almost all parameter sets there exists a critical point (,), where the minimum and the maximum of the equation of state are coincident and the incompressibility equals zero, falling into ranges 0.014fm^-3 < < 0.039fm^-3 and 0.74 < ≤0.95; for a few parameter sets there is no critical point and the pure neutron matter is predicted to be bound. The maximum mass M _NS of neutron stars is predicted in the range 2.45M ?M _NS? 3.26M , the corresponding neutron star radius R _NS is in the range 12.2km ?R _NS? 15.1km. Received: 5 May 2000 / Accepted: 28 November 2000     

Nucleon Finite Volume Effect and Nuclear Matter Properties in a Relativistic Mean-Field Theory

Effects of excluded volume of nucleons on nuclear matter are studied, and the nuclear properties that follow from different relativistic mean-field model parametrizations are compared. We show that, for all tested parametrizations, the resulting volume energy al and the symmetry energy J are around the acceptable values of 16 MeV and 30 MeV, and the density symmetry L is around 100 MeV. On the other hand, models that consider only linear terms lead to incompressibility Ko much higher than expected. For most parameter sets there exists a critical point （pc, δc）, where the minimum and the maximum of the equation of state are coincident and the incompressibility equals zero. This critical point depends on the excluded volume parameter r. If this parameter is larger than 0.5 fm, there is no critical point and the pure neutron matter is predicted to be bound. The maximum value for neutron star mass is 1.85M⊙, which is in agreement with the mass of the heaviest observed neutron star 4U0900-40 and corresponds to r = 0.72 fm. We also show that the light neutron star mass （1.2M⊙） is obtained for r ≌ 0.9 fro.     

Neutron stars in relativistic hadron-quark models

Neutron star properties are computed in relativistic models that contain both hadron and quark degrees of freedom. Neutron matter is assumed to have a low-density phase described by quantum hadrodynamics (QHD) and a high-density phase described by quantum chromodynamics (QCD). Several different QHD models and approximations are employed; all use parameters that reproduce the binding energy and density of equilibrium nuclear matter. Calculated neutron star properties depend primarily on the high-density equation of state and cannot be inferred from the symmetry energy or compressibility of equilibrium nuclear matter. If interactions are neglected in the QCD phase, the density of the hadron-quark phase transition is determined by one free parameters, which is the energy/volume needed to create a “bubble” that confines the quarks and gluons. Observed neutron star masses do not constrain this parameter, but stable neutron stars with quark cores can exist only for a limited range of parameter values. When second-order gluon-exchange corrections are included in the QCD phase, these conclusions are unchanged, and the parameter values that lead to stable hadronquark stars are restricted even further.     

Effective-field theory and the nuclear many-body problem

We review many-body calculations of the equation of state of dilute neutron matter in the context of effective-field theories of the nucleon-nucleon interaction.     

Correlations and the Dirac structure of the nucleon self-energy

The Dirac structure of the nucleon self-energy in symmetric nuclear matter as well as neutron matter is derived from a realistic meson exchange model for the nucleon-nucleon (NN) interaction. It is demonstrated that the effects of correlations on the effective NN interaction in the nuclear medium can be parameterized by means of an effective meson exchange. This analysis leads to a very intuitive interpretation of correlation effects and also provides an efficient parametrization of an effective interaction to be used in relativistic structure calculations for finite nuclei. Received: 29 January 2001 / Accepted: 5 May 2001     

Phase Transitions in Neutron Stars Within Modified Quark-Meson Coupling Model

K^- condensation and quark deconfinement phase transitions in neutron stars are investigated. We use the modified quark-meson coupling model for hadronic phase and the MIT bag model for quark phase. With the equation of state (EOS) solved self-consistently, we discuss the properties of neutron stars. We find that the EOS of pure hadron matter with condensed K^- phase should be ruled out by the redshift for star EXO0748-676, while EOS containing unpaired quark matter phase with B^1/4 being about 180 MeV could be consistent with both this observation and the best measured mass of star PSR 1913+16. But if the recent inferred massive star among Terzan 5 with M>1.68M_๏ is confirmed, all the present EOSes with condensed phase and deconfined phase would be ruled out.     

The Effect of Hyperon-Hyperon Interaction on Neutron Stars

The equations of state of the neutron star matter are calculated in the relativistic mean-field approximation with different hyperon coupling constants. The properties of neutron stars are studied by solving the Oppenheimer-Volkoff equation. It manifests the properties of neutron stars — change explicitly as different hyperon coupling constants are concerned.