The interplay of astrophysics and nuclear physics in determining the properties of neutron stars

Abstract

Neutron star properties depend on both nuclear physics and astrophysical processes, and thus observations of neutron stars offer constraints on both large-scale astrophysics and the behavior of cold, dense matter. In this study, we use astronomical data to jointly infer the universal equation of state of dense matter along with two distinct astrophysical populations: Galactic neutron stars observed electromagnetically and merging neutron stars in binaries observed with gravitational waves. We place constraints on neutron star properties and quantify the extent to which they are attributable to macrophysics or microphysics. We confirm previous results indicating that the Galactic and merging neutron stars have distinct mass distributions. The inferred maximum mass of both Galactic neutron stars, $M_{\rm pop, EM}=2.05^{+0.11}_{-0.06}\,M_{\odot}$ (median and 90\% symmetric credible interval), and merging neutron star binaries, $M_{\rm pop, GW}=1.85^{+0.39}_{-0.16}\,M_{\odot}$, are consistent with the maximum mass of nonrotating neutron stars set by nuclear physics, $M_{\rm TOV} =2.28^{+0.41}_{-0.21}\,M_\odot$. The radius of a $1.4\,M_{\odot}$ neutron star is $12.2^{+0.8}_{-0.9}\,$km, consistent with, though $\sim 20\%$ tighter than, previous results using an identical equation of state model. Even though observed Galactic and merging neutron stars originate from populations with distinct properties, there is currently no evidence that astrophysical processes cannot produce neutron stars up to the maximum value imposed by nuclear physics.