Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Neutron star radii, universal relations, and the role of prior distributions

  • Regular Article - Theoretical Physics
  • Published:
The European Physical Journal A Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract.

We investigate constraints on neutron star structure arising from the assumptions that neutron stars have crusts, that recent calculations of pure neutron matter limit the equation of state of neutron star matter near the nuclear saturation density, that the high-density equation of state is limited by causality and the largest high-accuracy neutron star mass measurement, and that general relativity is the correct theory of gravity. We explore the role of prior assumptions by considering two classes of equation of state models. In a first, the intermediate- and high-density behavior of the equation of state is parameterized by piecewise polytropes. In the second class, the high-density behavior of the equation of state is parameterized by piecewise continuous line segments. The smallest density at which high-density matter appears is varied in order to allow for strong phase transitions above the nuclear saturation density. We critically examine correlations among the pressure of matter, radii, maximum masses, the binding energy, the moment of inertia, and the tidal deformability, paying special attention to the sensitivity of these correlations to prior assumptions about the equation of state. It is possible to constrain the radii of \( 1.4 M_{\odot}\) neutron stars to be larger than 10km, even without consideration of additional astrophysical observations, for example, those from photospheric radius expansion bursts or quiescent low-mass X-ray binaries. We are able to improve the accuracy of known correlations between the moment of inertia and compactness as well as the binding energy and compactness. We also demonstrate the existence of a correlation between the neutron star binding energy and the moment of inertia.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. R.C. Tolman, Phys. Rev. 55, 364 (1939)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  2. J.R. Oppenheimer, G.M. Volkoff, Phys. Rev. 55, 374 (1939)

    Article  ADS  MATH  Google Scholar 

  3. A.G.W. Cameron, Astrophys. J. 130, 884 (1959)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  4. T.H.R. Skyrme, Nucl. Phys. 9, 615 (1959)

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  5. A.W. Steiner, M. Prakash, J.M. Lattimer, P. Ellis, Phys. Rep. 411, 325 (2005)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  6. E.S. Phinney, S.R. Kulkarni, Annu. Rev. Astron. Astrophys. 32, 591 (1994)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  7. P.B. Demorest, T. Pennucci, S.M. Ransom, M.S.E. Roberts, J.W.T. Hessels, Nature 467, 1081 (2010)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  8. J. Antoniadis, P.C.C. Freire, N. Wex, T.M. Tauris, R.S. Lynch, M.H. van Kerkwijk, M. Kramer, C. Bassa, V.S. Dhillon, T. Driebe, J.W.T. Hessels, V.M. Kaspi, V.I. Kondratiev, N. Langer, T.R. Marsh, M.A. McLaughlin, T.T. Pennucci, S.M. Ransom, I.H. Stairs, J. van Leeuwen, J.P.W. Verbiest, D.G. Whelan, Science 340, 1233232 (2013)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. J.M. Lattimer, Annu. Rev. Nucl. Part. Sci. 62, 485 (2012)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  10. J.M. Lattimer, M. Prakash, Astrophys. J. 550, 426 (2001)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  11. J. van Paradijs, Astrophys. J. 234, 609 (1979)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  12. F. Ozel, Nature 441, 1115 (2006)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  13. T. Güver, F. Özel, A. Cabrera-Lavers, P. Wroblewski, Astrophys. J. 712, 964 (2010)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  14. T. Güver, P. Wroblewski, L. Camarota, F. Özel, Astrophys. J. 719, 1807 (2010)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  15. F. Özel, T. Güver, D. Psaltis, Astrophys. J. 693, 1775 (2009)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  16. J. van Paradijs, F. Verbunt, R.A. Shafer, K.A. Arnaud, Astron. Astrophys. 182, 47 (1987)

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  17. L. Bildsten, E.E. Salpeter, I. Wasserman, Astrophys. J. 384, 143 (1992)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  18. R. Rutledge, L. Bildsten, E. Brown, G. Pavlov, E. Zavlin, Astrophys. J. 514, 945 (1999)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  19. M. Rajagopal, R.W. Romani, Astrophys. J. 461, 327 (1996)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  20. V.E. Zavlin, G.G. Pavlov, Y.A. Shibanov, Astron. Astrophys. 315, 141 (1996)

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  21. C.O. Heinke, G.B. Rybicki, R. Narayan, J.E. Grindlay, Astrophys. J. 644, 1090 (2006)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  22. N.A. Webb, D. Barret, Astrophys. J. 671, 727 (2007)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  23. L. Lindblom, Astrophys. J. 398, 569 (1992)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  24. L. Lindblom, N.M. Indik, Phys. Rev. D 89, 064003 (2014)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  25. M.G. Alford, S. Han, M. Prakash, Phys. Rev. D 88, 083013 (2013)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  26. F. Özel, D. Psaltis, Phys. Rev. D 80, 103003 (2009)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  27. J.S. Read, B.D. Lackey, B.J. Owen, J.L. Friedman, Phys. Rev. D 79, 124032 (2009)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  28. Y. Eriguchi, E. Mueller, Astron. Astrophys. 146, 260 (1985)

    ADS  MATH  Google Scholar 

  29. F. Özel, G. Baym, T. Güver, Phys. Rev. D 82, 101301 (2010)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  30. E. Chabanat, P. Bonche, P. Haensel, J. Meyer, R. Schaeffer, Phys. Scr. T 56, 231 (1995)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  31. A.W. Steiner, J.M. Lattimer, E.F. Brown, Astrophys. J. 722, 33 (2010)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  32. V. Suleimanov, J. Poutanen, K. Werner, Astron. Astrophys. 527, A139 (2011)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  33. M. Servillat, C.O. Heinke, W.C.G. Ho, J.E. Grindlay, J. Homg, M. van den Berg, S. Bogdanov, Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 423, 1556 (2012)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  34. K. Hebeler, J.M. Lattimer, C.J. Pethick, A. Schwenk, Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 161102 (2010)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  35. A.W. Steiner, S. Gandolfi, Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 081102 (2012)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  36. A.W. Steiner, J.M. Lattimer, E.F. Brown, Astrophys. J. Lett. 765, 5 (2013)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  37. S. Guillot, M. Servillat, N.A. Webb, R.E. Rutledge, Astrophys. J. 772, 7 (2013)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  38. J.M. Lattimer, A.W. Steiner, Eur. Phys. J. A 50, 40 (2014)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  39. C.O. Heinke, H.N. Cohn, P.M. Lugger, N.A. Webb, W.C.G. Ho, J. Anderson, S. Campana, S. Bogdanov, D. Haggard, A.M. Cool, J.E. Grindlay, Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 444, 443 (2014)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  40. A.W. Steiner, J. Phys. G 42, 034004 (2015)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  41. F. Ozel, D. Psaltis, T. Güver, G. Baym, C. Heinke, S. Guillot, arXiv:1505.05155 (2015)

  42. S. Guillot, R.E. Rutledge, Astrophys. J. Lett. 796, L3 (2014)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  43. A.W. Steiner, S. Gandolfi, F.J. Fattoyev, W.G. Newton, Phys. Rev. C 91, 015804 (2015)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  44. J. Nättilä, A.W. Steiner, J.J.E. Kajava, V.F. Suleimanov, J. Poutanen, arXiv:1509.06561 (2015)

  45. F. Özel, D. Psaltis, Astrophys. J. 810, 135 (2015)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  46. A. Gelman, J.B. Carlin, H.S. Stern, D.B. Dunson, A. Vehtari, D.B. Rubin, in Bayesian Data Analysis, 3rd edition (CRC Press, Boca Raton, 2014) chapt. 1

  47. S. Typel, B.A. Brown, Phys. Rev. C 64, 027302 (2001)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  48. C.J. Horowitz, J. Piekarewicz, Phys. Rev. Lett. 86, 5647 (2001)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  49. K. Yagi, N. Yunes, Science 341, 365 (2013)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  50. G. Baym, C. Pethick, P. Sutherland, Astrophys. J. 170, 299 (1971)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  51. S. Gandolfi, J. Carlson, S. Reddy, Phys. Rev. C 85, 032801 (2012)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  52. C. Drischler, V. Soma, A. Schwenk, Phys. Rev. C 89, 025806 (2014)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  53. S. Koranda, N. Stergioulas, J.L. Friedman, Astrophys. J. 488, 799 (1997)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  54. J.W. Negele, D. Vautherin, Nucl. Phys. A 207, 298 (1973)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  55. A.W. Steiner, Astrophysics Source Code Library, 2014, record ascl:1408.020

  56. A.W. Steiner, Astrophysics Source Code Library, 2014, record ascl:1408.019

  57. J.M. Lattimer, Y. Lim, Astrophys. J. 771, 51 (2013)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  58. J.M. Lattimer, M. Prakash, in From Nuclei To Stars: Festschrift in Honor of Gerald E Brown (World Scientific, Singapore, 2011) chapt. 12, arXiv:1012.3208

  59. M.G. Alford, G.F. Burgio, S. Han, G. Taranto, D. Zappalà, Phys. Rev. D 92, 083002 (2015)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  60. P. Bedaque, A.W. Steiner, Phys. Rev. Lett. 114, 031103 (2015)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  61. W.-C. Chen, J. Piekarewicz, Phys. Rev. Lett. 115, 161101 (2015)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  62. J.M. Lattimer, A. Yahil, Astrophys. J. 340, 426 (1989)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  63. J.M. Lattimer, B.F. Schutz, Astrophys. J. 629, 979 (2005)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  64. R.J. Furnstahl, D.R. Phillips, S. Wesolowski, J. Phys. G 42, 034028 (2015)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  65. M.B. Tsang, Y. Zhang, P. Danielewicz, M. Famiano, Z. Li, W.G. Lynch, A.W. Steiner, Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 122701 (2009)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Tennessee, 37996, Knoxville, TN, USA

    A. W. Steiner

  2. Physics Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, 37831, Oak Ridge, TN, USA

    A. W. Steiner

  3. Dept. of Physics & Astronomy, Stony Brook University, 11794-3800, Stony Brook, NY, USA

    J. M. Lattimer

  4. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Michigan State University, 48824, East Lansing, MI, USA

    E. F. Brown

  5. The Joint Institute for Nuclear Astrophysics-Center for the Evolution of the Elements, Michigan State University, 48824, East Lansing, MI, USA

    E. F. Brown

  6. National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory, Michigan State University, 48824, East Lansing, MI, USA

    E. F. Brown

Authors
  1. A. W. Steiner
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. J. M. Lattimer
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. E. F. Brown
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to A. W. Steiner.

Additional information

Communicated by D. Blaschke

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Steiner, A.W., Lattimer, J.M. & Brown, E.F. Neutron star radii, universal relations, and the role of prior distributions. Eur. Phys. J. A 52, 18 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1140/epja/i2016-16018-1

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1140/epja/i2016-16018-1

Keywords

Search

Navigation