On the effect of higher order symmetry energy corrections in Skyrme models for neutron star matter

Abstract

Neutron stars consist of cold, dense, neutron-rich nuclear matter under charge neutrality and $β$-equilibrium. In most nuclear equation of state (EOS) studies, the isospin dependence of asymmetric nuclear matter is described using the conventional quadratic/parabolic approximation to the nuclear symmetry energy. However, its validity in the highly neutron-rich inner core of neutron stars remains uncertain. In this work, we systematically investigate the role of higher-order isospin corrections to the symmetry energy within the framework of Skyrme-like effective nuclear interactions. We first analyze the standard SLy4 parametrization and quantify deviations arising from successive higher-order terms in the expansion of the energy per nucleon with respect to the isospin asymmetry parameter. We then extend the analysis to a large population of physically viable Skyrme EOSs sampled over a broad parameter space constrained by conventional nuclear saturation density bounds, thermodynamic stability, and causality, as well as the requirement to support astrophysical neutron-star mass observations exceeding $2\text{M}_{\odot}$. We find that higher-order isospin corrections become increasingly important at supra-nuclear densities and can significantly modify composition-sensitive quantities under $β$-equilibrium, including the neutron-proton chemical potential difference, proton fraction, leptonic sector properties, and the direct-Urca process. In contrast, the $β$-equilibrated EOS, energy density, pressure, and sound speed remain comparatively insensitive to these corrections for most viable EOSs. Our results demonstrate that while the quadratic approximation captures bulk thermodynamic behavior reasonably well, higher-order isospin contributions play a non-negligible role in determining the detailed composition and microscopic properties of dense matter in neutron-star interiors.