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We present new numerical relativity results of neutron star mergers with chirp mass $1.188M_\odot$ and mass ratios $q=1.67$ and $q=1.8$ using finite-temperature equations of state (EOS), approximate neutrino transport and a subgrid model for magnetohydrodynamics-induced turbulent viscosity. The EOS are compatible with nuclear and astrophysical constraints and include a new microphysical model derived from ab-initio calculations based on the Brueckner-Hartree-Fock approach. We report for the first time evidence for accretion-induced prompt collapse in high-mass-ratio mergers, in which the tidal disruption of the companion and its accretion onto the primary star determine prompt black hole formation. As a result of the tidal disruption, an accretion disc of neutron-rich and cold matter forms with baryon masses ${\sim}0.15M_\odot$, and it is significantly heavier than the remnant discs in equal-masses prompt collapse mergers. Massive dynamical ejecta of order ${\sim}0.01M_\odot$ also originate from the tidal disruption. They are neutron rich and expand from the orbital plane with a crescent-like geometry. Consequently, bright, red and temporally extended kilonova emission is predicted from these mergers. Our results show that prompt black hole mergers can power bright electromagnetic counterparts for high-mass-ratio binaries, and that the binary mass ratio can be in principle constrained from multimessenger observations., 20 pages, 21 figures, 4 tables

The so called "hyperon puzzle", i.e. the difficulty to reconcile the measured masses of neutron stars (NSs) with the presence of hyperons in their interiors, is one of the hot topics in astrophysics which is stimulating copious experimental and theoretical research in hypernuclear physics. After illustrating the origin of the hyperon puzzle, I discuss some of its possible solutions, and particularly those related to the role of hyperonic two- and three-body interactions on the equation of state of dense matter. Afterward, I discuss a possibility to circumvent the hyperon puzzle allowing for the presence of strangeness in NSs in the form of deconfined strange quark matter, and thus considering the so called quark stars, i.e. hybrid stars or strange stars. Finally I discuss the astrophysical consequences of the possible conversion process of an hadronic star to a quark star., Comment: Invited keynote talk at the Topical Session "Hyperon puzzle in Neutron Stars" at the 12th International Conference on Hypernuclear and Strange Particle Physics (HYP2015), September 7-12, 2015, Sendai, Japan. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1601.04559

We investigate the possibility that the low mass companion of the black hole in the source of GW190814 was a strange quark star. This possibility is viable within the so-called two-families scenario in which neutron stars and strange quark stars coexist. Strange quark stars can reach the mass range indicated by GW190814, $M\sim (2.5-2.67) M_\odot$ due to a large value of the adiabatic index, without the need for a velocity of sound close to the causal limit. Neutron stars (actually hyperonic stars in the two-families scenario) can instead fulfill the presently available astrophysical and nuclear physics constraints which require a softer equation of state. In this scheme it is possible to satisfy both the request of very large stellar masses and of small radii while using totally realistic and physically motivated equations of state. Moreover it is possible to get a radius for a 1.4 $M_\odot$ star of the order or less than 11 km, which is impossible if only one family of compact stars exists., 6 pages, 3 figures. Accepted on Phys. Rev. Letters

We report benchmark calculations of the energy per particle of pure neutron matter as a function of the baryon density using three independent many-body methods: Brueckner-Bethe-Goldstone, Fermi hypernetted chain/single-operator chain, and auxiliary-field diffusion Monte Carlo. Significant technical improvements are implemented in the latter two methods. The calculations are made for two distinct families of realistic coordinate-space nucleon-nucleon potentials fit to scattering data, including the standard Argonne $v_{18}$ interaction and two of its simplified versions, and four of the new Norfolk $\Delta$-full chiral effective field theory potentials. The results up to twice nuclear matter saturation density show some divergence among the methods, but improved agreement compared to earlier work. We find that the potentials fit to higher-energy nucleon-nucleon scattering data exhibit a much smaller spread of energies., Comment: 16 pages, 7 figures

We study the effect of the nucleon-nucleon-lambda (NN$\Lambda$) three-body force on neutron stars. In particular, we consider the NN$\Lambda$ force recently derived by the J\"{u}lich--Bonn--Munich group within the framework of chiral effective field theory at next-to-next-to-leading order. This force, together with realistic nucleon-nucleon, nucleon-nucleon-nucleon and nucleon-hyperon interactions, is used to calculate the equation of state and the structure of neutron stars within the many-body non-relativistic Brueckner-Hartree-Fock approach. Our results show that the inclusion of the NN$\Lambda$ force leads to an equation of state stiff enough such that the resulting neutron star maximum mass is compatible with the largest currently measured ($\sim 2\ M_\odot$) neutron star masses. Using a perturbative many-body approach we calculate also the separation energy of the $\Lambda$ in some hypernuclei finding that the agreement with the experimental data improves for the heavier ones when the effect of the NN$\Lambda$ force is taken into account., Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, 3 tables

A precise understanding of the equation of state (EOS) of dense and hot matter is key to modeling relativistic astrophysical environments, including core-collapse supernovae (CCSNe), protoneutron star (PNSs) evolution, and compact binary mergers. In this paper, we extend the microscopic zero-temperature BL (Bombaci and Logoteta) %nuclear equation of state nuclear EOS %derived by Bombaci and Logoteta to finite temperature and arbitrary nuclear composition. We employ this new EOS to describe hot $\beta$-stable nuclear matter and to compute various structural properties of nonrotating PNS. %protoneutron stars. We also apply the EOS to perform dynamical simulations of a spherically symmetric CCSN. The EOS is derived using the finite temperature extension of the Brueckner--Bethe--Goldstone quantum many-body theory in the Brueckner--Hartree--Fock approximation. Neutron star properties are computed by solving the Tolman--Oppenheimer--Volkoff structure equations numerically. The sperically symmetric CCSN simulations are performed using the AGILE-IDSA code. Our EOS models are able to reproduce typical features of both PNS and spherically symmetric CCSN simulations. In addition, our EOS model is consistent with present measured neutron star masses and particularly with the masses: $M = 2.01 \pm 0.04 \, M_{\odot}$ and $M = 2.14^{+0.20}_{-0.18} \, M_{\odot}$ of the neutron stars in PSR~J0348+0432 and PSR J0740+6620 respectively. Finally, we suggest a feasible mechanism to produce low-mass black holes ($M \sim 2M_{\odot}$) that could have far-reaching consequences for interpreting the gravitational wave event GW190814 as a BH--BH merger., Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A

We discuss the constraints on the equation of state (EOS) of neutron star matter obtained by the data analysis of the neutron star-neutron star merger in the event GW170807. To this scope, we consider two recent microscopic EOS models computed starting from two-body and three-body nuclear interactions derived using chiral perturbation theory. For comparison, we also use three representative phenomenological EOS models derived within the relativistic mean field approach. For each model, we determine the &beta, stable EOS and then the corresponding neutron star structure by solving the equations of hydrostatic equilibrium in general relativity. In addition, we calculate the tidal deformability parameters for the two neutron stars and discuss the results of our calculations in connection with the constraints obtained from the gravitational wave signal in GW170817. We find that the tidal deformabilities and radii for the binary&rsquo, s component neutron stars in GW170817, calculated using a recent microscopic EOS model proposed by the present authors, are in very good agreement with those derived by gravitational waves data.

In this White Paper we present the potential of the Enhanced X-ray Timing and Polarimetry (eXTP) mission for determining the nature of dense matter; neutron star cores host an extreme density regime which cannot be replicated in a terrestrial laboratory. The tightest statistical constraints on the dense matter equation of state will come from pulse profile modelling of accretion-powered pulsars, burst oscillation sources, and rotation-powered pulsars. Additional constraints will derive from spin measurements, burst spectra, and properties of the accretion flows in the vicinity of the neutron star. Under development by an international Consortium led by the Institute of High Energy Physics of the Chinese Academy of Science, the eXTP mission is expected to be launched in the mid 2020s., Comment: Accepted for publication on Sci. China Phys. Mech. Astron. (2019)

The large values of the singlet and triplet two-nucleon scattering lengths locate the nuclear system close to the unitary limit. This particular position strongly constrains the low-energy observables in the three-nucleon system as depending on one parameter, the triton binding energy, and introduces correlations in the low energy sector of light nuclei. Here we analyze the propagation of these correlations to infinite nuclear matter showing that its saturation properties, the equation of state of $\beta$-stable nuclear matter and several properties of neutron stars, as their maximum mass, are well determined solely by a few number of low-energy quantities of the two- and three-nucleon systems. In this way we make a direct link between the universal behavior observed in the low-energy region of few-nucleon systems and fundamental properties of nuclear matter and neutron stars., Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures

We present fully general relativistic simulations of binary neutron star mergers, employing a new zero- temperature chiral effective field theory equation of state, the BL EOS. We offer a comparison with respect to the older GM3 EOS, which is based on standard relativistic mean field theory, and separately determine the impact of the mass. We provide a detailed analysis of the dynamics, with focus on the post-merger phase. For all models, we extract the gravitational wave strain and the post-merger frequency spectrum. Further, we determine the amount, velocity, and polar distribution of ejected matter, and provide estimates for the resulting kilonova signals. We also study the evolution of the disk while it is interacting with the hypermassive remnant, and dis- cuss the merits of different disk mass definitions applicable before collapse, with regard to the mass remaining after BH formation. Finally, we investigate the radial mass distribution and rotation profile of the remnants, which validate previous results and also corroborate a recently proposed stability criterion., Comment: 17 pages, 16 figures

We adopt two- and three-body nuclear forces derived at the next-to-next-to-leading-order in the framework of effective chiral perturbation theory to calculate the equation of state of β-stable neutron star matter using the Brueckner–Hartree–Fock many-body approach. We use the recent optimized chiral two-body nuclear interaction at next-to-next-to-leading-order derived by Ekström et al. and two different parametrizations of the three-body next-to-next-to-leading-order interaction: the first one is fixed to reproduce the saturation point of symmetric nuclear matter while the second one is fixed to reproduce the binding energies of light atomic nuclei. We show that in the second case the properties of nuclear matter are not well determined whereas in the first case various empirical nuclear matter properties around the saturation density are well reproduced. We finally calculate various neutron star properties and in particular the mass-radius and mass-central density relations. We find that the adopted interactions based on a fully microscopic framework, are able to provide an equation of state which is consistent with the present data of measured neutron star masses.

It is usually thought that a single equation of state (EoS) model "correctly" represents cores of all compact stars. Here we emphasize that two families of compact stars, viz., neutron stars and strange stars, can coexist in nature, and that neutron stars can get converted to strange stars through the nucleation process of quark matter in the stellar center. From our fully general relativistic numerical computations of the structures of fast-spinning compact stars, known as millisecond pulsars, we find that such a stellar conversion causes a simultaneous spin-up and decrease in gravitational mass of these stars. This is a new type of millisecond pulsar evolution through a new mechanism, which gives rise to relatively lower mass compact stars with higher spin rates. This could have implication for the observed mass and spin distributions of millisecond pulsars. Such a stellar conversion can also rescue some massive, spin-supported millisecond pulsars from collapsing into black holes. Besides, we extend the concept of critical mass $M_{\rm cr}$ for the neutron star sequence (Berezhiani et al. 2003; Bombaci et al. 2004) to the case of fast-spinning neutron stars, and point out that neutron star EoS models cannot be ruled out by the stellar mass measurement alone. Finally, we emphasize the additional complexity for constraining EoS models, for example, by stellar radius measurements using X-ray observations, if two families of compact stars coexist., 10 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal

The recent fast growth of a population of millisecond pulsars with precisely measured mass provides an excellent opportunity to characterize these compact stars at an unprecedented level. This is because the stellar parameter values can be accurately computed for known mass and spin rate and an assumed equation of state (EoS) model. For each of the 16 such pulsars and for a set of EoS models from nucleonic, hyperonic, strange quark matter and hybrid classes, we numerically compute fast spinning stable stellar parameter values considering the full effect of general relativity. This first detailed catalogue of the computed parameter values of observed millisecond pulsars provides a testbed to probe the physics of compact stars, including their formation, evolution and EoS. We estimate uncertainties on these computed values from the uncertainty of the measured mass, which could be useful to quantitatively constrain EoS models. We note that the largest value of the central density $\rho_{\rm c}$ in our catalogue is $\sim 5.8$ times the nuclear saturation density $\rho_{\rm sat}$, which is much less than the expected maximum value $13 \rho_{\rm sat}$. We argue that the $\rho_{\rm c}$-values of at most a small fraction of compact stars could be much larger than $5.8 \rho_{\rm sat}$. Besides, we find that the constraints on EoS models from accurate radius measurements could be significantly biased for some of our pulsars, if stellar $spinning$ configurations are not used to compute the theoretical radius values., Comment: 16 pages, 2 figures, 4 tables, accepted for publication in New Astronomy

We use two-body and three-body nuclear interactions derived in the framework of chiral perturbation theory (ChPT) with and without the explicit ∆ isobar contributions to calculate the energy per particle of symmetric nuclear matter and pure neutron matter employing the microscopic Brueckner–Hartree–Fock approach. In particular, we present nuclear matter calculations using the new fully local in coordinate-space two-nucleon interaction at the next-to-next-to-next-to-leading-order (N3LO) of ChPT with ∆ isobar intermediate states (N3LO∆) recently developed by Piarulli et al. [1]. We compute the β-equilibrium equation of state and determine the neutron star mass-radius and mass-central density sequences. We find that the adopted interactions are able to provide satisfactory properties of nuclear matter at saturation density as well as to fulfill the limit of two-solar mass for the maximum mass configuration as required by recent observations.

For a set of equation of state (EoS) models involving interacting strange quark matter, characterized by an effective bag constant (B_eff) and a perturbative QCD corrections term (a_4), we construct fully general relativistic equilibrium sequences of rapidly spinning strange stars for the first time. Computation of such sequences is important to study millisecond pulsars and other fast spinning compact stars. Our EoS models can support a gravitational mass (M_G) and a spin frequency at least up to approximately 3.0 solar mass and approximately 1250 Hz respectively, and hence are fully consistent with measured M_G and spin frequency values. This paper reports the effects of B_eff and a_4 on measurable compact star properties, which could be useful to find possible ways to constrain these fundamental quark matter parameters, within the ambit of our EoS models. We confirm that a lower B_eff allows a higher mass. Besides, for known M_G and spin frequency, measurable parameters, such as stellar radius, radius-to-mass ratio and moment of inertia, increase with the decrease of B_eff. Our calculations also show that a_4 significantly affects the stellar rest mass and the total stellar binding energy. As a result, a_4 can have signatures in evolutions of both accreting and non-accreting compact stars, and the observed distribution of stellar mass and spin and other source parameters. Finally, we compute the parameter values of two important pulsars, PSR J1614-2230 and PSR J1748-2446ad, which may have implications to probe their evolutionary histories, and for constraining EoS models., 17 pages, 11 figures, 7 tables, accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

A phase of strong interacting matter with deconfined quarks is expected in the core of massive neutron stars. We investigate the quark deconfinement phase transition in cold (T = 0) and hot beta-stable hadronic matter. Assuming a first order phase transition, we calculate and compare the nucleation rate and the nucleation time due to quantum and thermal nucleation mechanisms. We show that above a threshold value of the central pressure a pure hadronic star (HS) (i.e. a compact star with no fraction of deconfined quark matter) is metastable to the conversion to a quark star (QS) (i.e. a hybrid star or a strange star). This process liberates an enormous amount of energy, of the order of 10^{53}~erg, which causes a powerful neutrino burst, likely accompanied by intense gravitational waves emission, and possibly by a second delayed (with respect to the supernova explosion forming the HS) explosion which could be the energy source of a powerful gamma-ray burst (GRB). This stellar conversion process populates the QS branch of compact stars, thus one has in the Universe two coexisting families of compact stars: pure hadronic stars and quark stars. We introduce the concept of critical mass M_{cr} for cold HSs and proto-hadronic stars (PHSs), and the concept of limiting conversion temperature for PHSs. We show that PHSs with a mass M < M_{cr} could survive the early stages of their evolution without decaying to QSs. Finally, we discuss the possible evolutionary paths of proto-hadronic stars., Invited review paper accepted for publication in EPJ A, Topical Issue on "Exotic Matter in Neutron Stars"

Using two-nucleon and three-nucleon interactions derived in the framework of chiral perturbation theory (ChPT) with and without the explicit $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}$ isobar contributions, we calculate the energy per particle of symmetric nuclear matter and pure neutron matter in the framework of the microscopic Brueckner-Hartree-Fock approach. In particular, we present for the first time nuclear matter calculations using the new fully local in coordinate-space two-nucleon interaction at the next-to-next-to-next-to-leading-order (N3LO) of ChPT with $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}$ isobar intermediate states ($\mathrm{N}3\mathrm{LO}\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}$) recently developed by Piarulli et al. [arXiv:1606.06335]. We find that using this $\mathrm{N}3\mathrm{LO}\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}$ potential, supplemented with a local N2LO three-nucleon interaction with explicit $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}$ isobar degrees of freedom, it is possible to obtain a satisfactory saturation point of symmetric nuclear matter. For this combination of two- and three-nucleon interactions we also calculate the nuclear symmetry energy and we compare our results with the empirical constraints on this quantity obtained using the excitation energies to isobaric analog states in nuclei and using experimental data on the neutron skin thickness of heavy nuclei, finding a very good agreement in all the considered nucleonic density range. In addition, we find that the explicit inclusion of $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}$ isobars diminishes the strength of the three-nucleon interactions needed to get a good saturation point of symmetric nuclear matter. We also compare the results of our calculations with those obtained by other research groups using chiral nuclear interactions with different many-body methods, finding in many cases a very satisfactory agreement.

The true nature and the internal constitution of the compact stars known as neutron stars (NSs) is one of the most fascinating enigma in modern astrophysics. We discuss some of the present models for the internal structure of NSs and the connection with the properties of ultra dense hadronic matter. In particular, we discuss the role of strangeness on the equation of state and the implications of the measurement of 2 solar mass NSs in PSR J1614-2230 and PSR J0348+0432.

We investigate the quark deconfinement phase transition in cold ([Formula: see text]) and hot [Formula: see text]-stable hadronic matter. Assuming a first-order phase transition, we calculate and compare the nucleation rate and the nucleation time due to quantum and thermal nucleation mechanisms. We show that above a threshold value of the central pressure a pure hadronic star (HS) (i.e. a compact star with no fraction of deconfined quark matter (QM)) is metastable to the conversion to a quark star (QS) (i.e. a hybrid star or a strange star). This process liberates a huge amount of energy, of the order of 10[Formula: see text] erg, which produces a powerful neutrino burst, likely accompanied by intense gravitational waves emission, and possibly by a second delayed (with respect to the supernova explosion forming the HS) explosion which could be the energy source of a powerful gamma-ray burst (GRB). This stellar conversion process populates the QS branch of compact stars, thus one has in the universe two coexisting families of compact stars: HSs and QSs. We introduce the concept of critical mass [Formula: see text] for cold HSs and proto-hadronic stars (PHSs), and the concept of limiting conversion temperature for PHSs. We show that PHSs with a mass [Formula: see text] could survive the early stages of their evolution without decaying to QSs. Finally, we discuss the possible evolutionary paths of PHSs.

We study the energy per particle of symmetric nuclear matter and pure neutron matter using realistic nucleon--nucleon potentials having non central tensor and spin--orbit components, up to three times the empirical nuclear matter saturation density, $\rho_0=0.16$ fm$^{-3}$. The calculations are carried out within the frameworks of the Brueckner--Bethe--Goldstone (BBG) and Correlated Basis Functions (CBF) formalisms, in order to ascertain the accuracy of the methods. The two hole--line approximation, with the continuous choice for the single particle auxiliary potential, is adopted for the BBG approach, whereas the variational Fermi Hypernetted Chain/Single Operator Chain theory, corrected at the second order perturbative expansion level, is used in the CBF one. The energies are then compared with the available Quantum and Variational Monte Carlo results in neutron matter and with the BBG, up to the three hole--line diagrams. For neutron matter and potentials without spin--orbit components all methods, but perturbative CBF, are in reasonable agreement up to $\rho\sim$ 3 $\rho_0$. After the inclusion of the LS interactions, we still find agreement around $\rho_0$, whereas it is spoiled at larger densities. The spin--orbit potential lowers the energy of neutron matter at $\rho_0$ by $\sim$ 3--4 MeV per nucleon. In symmetric nuclear matter, the BBG and the variational results are in agreement up to $\sim$ 1.5 $\rho_0$. Beyond this density, and in contrast with neutron matter, we find good agreement only for the potential having spin--orbit components., Comment: 18 pages, 4 tables. Accepted in PLB

We study the nucleation of quark matter drops at the center of cold deleptonized neutron stars. This is relevant in the determination of the critical mass $M_{cr}$ of hadronic stars above which it is possible a transition to a quark star (strange or hybrid). We investigate the dependence of $M_{cr}$ upon the parameters of the quark model (the Bag constant $B$, the pairing gap $\Delta$, and the surface tension $\sigma$ of the quark-hadron interphase) and for different parametrization of the hadronic equations of state. The dependence of $M_{cr}$ on $B$, $\Delta$ and $\sigma$ is mild if the parameters of the quark model correspond to hybrid stars, and strong if they correspond to strange stars. For a large part of the parameter space corresponding to hybrid stars, the critical mass is very close (but smaller than) the maximum mass of hadronic stars, and therefore compatible with a "mixed" population of compact stars (pure hadronic up to the critical mass and hybrid above the critical mass). For very large $B$ the critical mass is never smaller than the maximum mass of hadronic stars, implying that quark stars cannot form through the here studied mechanism. The energy released in the conversion is $3 \times 10^{52}$ erg - $4 \times 10^{53}$ erg, i.e. sufficient to power a gamma ray burst., Comment: Version to appear in Astronomy & Astrophysics

The properties of spin polarized neutron matter are studied both at zero and finite temperature within the framework of the Brueckner--Hartree--Fock formalism, using the Argonne v18 nucleon-nucleon interaction. The free energy, energy and entropy per particle are calculated for several values of the spin polarization, densities and temperatures together with the magnetic susceptibility of the system. The results show no indication of a ferromagnetic transition at any density and temperature., Comment: 19 pages, 5 figures

We study the consequences of the hadron-quark deconfinement phase transition in stellar compact objects when finite size effects between the deconfined quark phase and the hadronic phase are taken into account. We show that above a threshold value of the central pressure (gravitational mass) a neutron star is metastable to the decay (conversion) to a hybrid neutron star or to a strange star. The "mean-life time" of the metastable configuration dramatically depends on the value of the stellar central pressure. We explore the consequences of the metastability of ``massive'' neutron stars and of the existence of stable compact quark stars (hybrid neutron stars or strange stars) on the concept of limiting mass of compact stars. We discuss the implications of our scenario on the interpretation of the stellar mass and radius extracted from the spectra of several X-ray compact sources. Finally, we show that our scenario implies, as a natural consequence a two step-process which is able to explain the inferred ``delayed'' connection between supernova explosions and GRBs, giving also the correct energy to power GRBs., Comment: 34 pages, 10 figures

We investigate in the framework of the Brueckner-Hartree-Fock approximation, the influence of neutrino trapping on the composition, equation of state, and structure of neutron stars immediately after birth. We explore also the consequences of neutrino trapping on the early evolution of a neutron star and on the final remnant left by the supernova explosion.

Aims. We report a new microscopic equation of state (EOS) of dense symmetric nuclear matter, pure neutron matter, and asymmetric and β-stable nuclear matter at zero temperature using recent realistic two-body and three-body nuclear interactions derived in the framework of chiral perturbation theory (ChPT) and including the Δ(1232) isobar intermediate state. This EOS is provided in tabular form and in parametrized form ready for use in numerical general relativity simulations of binary neutron star merging. Here we use our new EOS for β-stable nuclear matter to compute various structural properties of non-rotating neutron stars. Methods. The EOS is derived using the Brueckner–Bethe–Goldstone quantum many-body theory in the Brueckner–Hartree–Fock approximation. Neutron star properties are next computed solving numerically the Tolman–Oppenheimer–Volkov structure equations. Results. Our EOS models are able to reproduce the empirical saturation point of symmetric nuclear matter, the symmetry energy Esym, and its slope parameter L at the empirical saturation density n0. In addition, our EOS models are compatible with experimental data from collisions between heavy nuclei at energies ranging from a few tens of MeV up to several hundreds of MeV per nucleon. These experiments provide a selective test for constraining the nuclear EOS up to ~4n0. Our EOS models are consistent with present measured neutron star masses and particularly with the mass M = 2.01 ± 0.04 M⊙ of the neutron stars in PSR J0348+0432.

We calculate the energy per particle of symmetric nuclear matter and pure neutron matter using the microscopic many-body Brueckner-Hartree-Fock (BHF) approach and employing the Argonne V18 (AV18) nucleon-nucleon (NN) potential supplemented with two different three-nucleon force models recently constructed to reproduce the binding energy of $^{3}\mathrm{H},\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}^{3}\mathrm{He}$, and $^{4}\mathrm{He}$ nuclei as well as the neutron-deuteron doublet scattering length. We find that none of these new three-nucleon force models is able to reproduce simultaneously the empirical saturation point of symmetric nuclear matter and the properties of three- and four-nucleon systems.

There have been recently strong observational indications [1] about the possibility that some Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) can take place years after a supernova (SN) explosion due to some mechanism involving the compact star left by the stellar collapse associated to the supernova. In the present work, we propose a model to explain this possible “delayed” GRB-SN association. Our model is based on the conversion of a pure hadronic star (neutron star) into a star made at least in part of deconfined quark matter. The conversion process can be delayed if the surface tension of the interface between the hadronic and deconfined quark matter phases is taken into account. The nucleation time ( i.e. the time to form a critical-size drop of quark matter) can be extremely long if the mass of the star is small. Via mass accretion the nucleation time can be dramatically reduced and the star is finally converted from the metastable into the stable configuration. A huge amount of energy, of the order of 10 52 –10 53 erg, is released during the conversion process and can produce a powerful gamma ray burst. The delay between the supernova explosion generating the metastable neutron star and the stellar conversion can explain the delay observed in GRB990705 [1] and in GRB011211 [2].

It has been suggested that the QPO phenomenon in LMXB's could be explained when the central compact object is a strange star. In this work we investigate within a standard model for disk accretion whether the observed clustering of spin frequencies in a narrow band is in accordance with this hypothesis. We show that frequency clustering occurs for accreting strange stars when typical values of the parameters of magnetic field initial strength and decay time, accretion rate are chosen. In contrast to hybrid star accretion no mass clustering effect is found., 10 pages, 3 figures, version accepted for publication in New Astronomy

Are there quark stars in nature? We review the question in the light of modern astrophysical observations. Quark stars have properties which are very similar to those of neutron stars. For example they are now known to have the same kind of cooling properties. Their masses may also be similar. On the other hand, gamma ray bursts (GRB), the brightest phenomenon observable at present in the sky, could possibly be conversion of normal or neutron matter on the surface of a quark star. The best observational evidence for the existence of quark stars seems to be some compact objects, the X-Ray burst source 4U 1820-30, the X-ray pulsar Her X-1, the star 4U 1728-34 and SAX J-1808.4-3658, this last one being the stablest and fastest rotating hard X-ray pulsar known to date. The mass of at least these four objects is high and their radius is low, placing them close to the black hole line, in the mass–radius (M–R) plot.

We study the conversion of a neutron star to a strange star as a possible energy source for gamma-ray bursts. We use different recent models for the equation of state of neutron star matter and strange quark matter. We show that the total amount of energy liberated in the conversion is in the range of (1-4) 10^{53} ergs (one order of magnitude larger than previous estimates) and is in agreement with the energy required to power gamma-ray burst sources at cosmological distances., ApJ, 530, 2000 February 20, Lxxx (in press)

We derive an equation of state (EOS) for strange matter, starting from an interquark potential which (i) has asymptotic freedom built into it, (ii) shows confinement at zero baryon density and deconfinement at high density and (iii) gives a stable configuration for chargeless, beta--stable quark matter. This EOS is then used to calculate the structure of Strange Stars, and in particular their mass-radius relation. Our present results confirm and reinforce the recent claim by Li et al (Astron. and Astrophys. 303 (1995) L1) and Bombaci (Phys.Rev. C55 (1997) 1587) that the compact objects associated with the x-ray pulsar Her X-1, and with the x-ray burster 4U 1820-30 are strange stars., Comment: 11 Pages, 2 figures, On-line abstract changed and full reference given instead of tex- type. E-mail : bombaci@pi.infn.it, deyjm@giascl01.vsnl.net.in, Physics Letters B (in press)

We present an upgraded review of our microscopic investigation on the single-particle properties and the EOS of isospin asymmetric nuclear matter within the framework of the Brueckner theory extended to include a microscopic three-body force. We pay special attention to the discussion of the three-body force effect and the comparison of our results with the predictions by other ab initio approaches. Three-body force is shown to be necessary for reproducing the empirical saturation properties of symmetric nuclear matter within nonrelativistic microscopic frameworks, and also for extending the hole-line expansion to a wide density range. The three-body force effect on nuclear symmetry energy is repulsive, and it leads to a significant stiffening of the density dependence of symmetry energy at supra-saturation densities. Within the Brueckner approach, the three-body force affects the nucleon s.p. potentials primarily via its rearrangement contribution which is strongly repulsive and momentum-dependent at high densities and high momenta. Both the rearrangement contribution induced by the three-body force and the effect of ground-state correlations are crucial for predicting reliably the single-particle properties within the Brueckner framework.

We study the quark deconfinement phase transition in cold (T = 0) neutron star matter and we calculate various structural properties of hybrid stars. For the quark phase, we use an equation of state (EOS) based on the Field Correlator Method (FCM) extended to the case of nonzero baryon density. For the confined hadronic phase we use a relativistic mean field model considering both pure nucleonic and hyperonic matter. We constrain the values of the gluon condensate G2, which is one of the EOS parameter within the FCM, making use of the measured mass, M = 1.97 ± 0.04 M⊙, of the neutron star in PSR J1614-2230. Our results show that the values of G2 extracted from the mass measurement of PSR J1614-2230 are consistent with the values of the same quantity derived, within the FCM, from recent lattice QCD calculations of the deconfinement transition temperature at zero baryon chemical potential.

The Large Observatory For x-ray Timing (LOFT) was studied within ESA M3 Cosmic Vision framework and participated in the final down-selection for a launch slot in 2022-2024. Thanks to the unprecedented combination of effective area and spectral resolution of its main instrument, LOFT will study the behaviour of matter under extreme conditions, such as the strong gravitational field in the innermost regions of accretion flows close to black holes and neutron stars, and the supra-nuclear densities in the interior of neutron stars. The science payload is based on a Large Area Detector (LAD, 10 m 2 effective area, 2-30 keV, 240 eV spectral resolution, 1 deg collimated field of view) and a WideField Monitor (WFM, 2-50 keV, 4 steradian field of view, 1 arcmin source location accuracy, 300 eV spectral resolution). The WFM is equipped with an on-board system for bright events (e.g. GRB) localization. The trigger time and position of these events are broadcast to the ground within 30 s from discovery. In this paper we present the status of the mission at the end of its Phase A study., Proc. SPIE 9144, Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2014: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray, 91442T

We present systematic calculations of the mass-radius (MR) relation of a neutron star (NS) using a large variety of modern equations of state (EOS) of dense matter. The role of strangeness on the EOS and on the MR relation is particularly emphasized. Theoretical results are then compared with the semiempirical MR relation recently extracted for the x-ray burst source 4U 1820-30. Based on this comparison, we propose that the compact object in 4U 1820-30 is a kaon-condensed nucleon star or a strange star.

A phase of strong interacting matter with deconfined quarks is expected in the core of massive neutron stars. In this article, we perform a study of the hadron-quark phase transition in cold (T = 0) neutron star matter and we calculate various structural properties of hybrid stars. For the quark phase, we make use of an equation of state (EOS) derived with the field correlator method (FCM) recently extended to the case of nonzero baryon density. For the hadronic phase, we consider both pure nucleonic and hyperonic matter, and we derive the corresponding EOS within a relativistic mean field approach. We make use of measured neutron star masses, and particularly the mass $M = 1.97 \pm 0.04 \, M_\odot$ of PSR J1614 -2230 to constrain the values of the gluon condensate $G_2$, which is one of the EOS parameters within the FCM. We find that the values of $G_2$ extracted from the mass measurement of PSR J1614 -2230 are consistent with the values of the same quantity derived within the FCM from recent lattice QCD calculations of the deconfinement transition temperature at zero baryon chemical potential. The FCM thus provides a powerful tool to link numerical calculations of QCD on a space-time lattice with measured neutron star masses., Comment: PHYSICAL REVIEW D (in press). arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1212.5907

The structure of newborn hot neutron stars is compared with that of cold catalyzed configurations. The role of the nuclear equation of state on the structural changes is investigated and some of the astrophysical consequences are briefly discussed.

The present status of the microscopic foundation of the nuclear Equation of State is briefly reviewed. At zero temperature, considerable progress has been done in the last few years in identifying the main physical effects which determine the nuclear saturation curve, at least for not too high densities. Besides the many-body correlations, originating from the bare two-nucleon interactions, three-body forces, meson renormalization and non-nucleonic degrees of freedom appear to be of special relevance. However, due to the complexity of the problem, a complete solution is still missing. At finite temperature, only very few studies have been presented till now. It is pointed out that the phenomenology on hot nuclei, obtained in heavy ion collisions, could be used as a check for different microscopic theories of the nuclear Equation of State.

We study the hadron-quark phase transition in neutron star matter and the structural properties of hybrid stars using an equation of state (EOS) for the quark phase derived with the field correlator method (FCM). We make use of the measured neutron star masses, and particularly the mass of PSR J1614-2230, to constrain the values of the gluon condensate $G_2$ which is one of the EOS parameter within the FCM. We find that the values of $G_2$ extracted from the mass measurement of PSR J1614-2230 are fully consistent with the values of the same quantity derived, within the FCM, from recent lattice quantum chromodynamics (QCD) calculations of the deconfinement transition temperature at zero baryon chemical potential. The FCM thus provides a powerful tool to link numerical calculations of QCD on a space-time lattice with neutron stars physics., Minor changes and typos corrected

The nucleation process of quark matter in cold (T = 0) stellar matter is investigated using the microscopic Brueckner-Hartree-Fock approach to describe the hadronic phase, and the MIT bag model, the Nambu-Jona-Lasinio, and the Chromo Dielectric models to describe the deconfined phase of quark matter. The consequences of the nucleation process for neutron star physics are outlined. Hyperonic stars are metastable only for some of the quark matter equations of state considered. The effect of an hyperonic three body force on the metastability of compact stars is estimated, and it is shown that, except for the Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model and the MIT bag model with a large bag pressure, the other models predict the formation of hybrid stars with a maximum mass not larger than \sim 1.62 M\odot .

The nucleation process of quark matter in both cold and hot dense hadronic matter is investigated using a chiral approach to describe the quark phase. We use the Nambu-Jona-Lasinio and the Chromo Dielectric models to describe the deconfined phase and the non-linear Walecka model for the hadronic one. The effect of hyperons on the transition phase between hadronic and quark matter is studied. The consequences of the nucleation process for neutron star physics are outlined.

A model based on a microscopic Brueckner–Hartree–Fock approach of hyperonic matter supplemented with additional simple phenomenological density-dependent contact terms is employed to estimate the effect of hyperonic three-body forces on the maximum mass of neutron stars. Our results show that although hyperonic three-body forces can reconcile the maximum mass of hyperonic stars with the current limit of 1.4 – 1.5M⊙, they are unable to provide the repulsion needed to make the maximum mass compatible with the observation of massive neutron stars, such as the recent measurements of the unusually high masses of the millisecond pulsars PSR J1614-2230 (1.97 ± 0.04M⊙) and PSR J1903+0327 (1.667 ± 0.021M⊙).

The properties of hot asymmetric nuclear matter are investigated in the framework of an extended Brueckner-Bethe-Goldstone theory, using the Paris nucleon-nucleon interaction. In particular, the asymmetry and temperature dependence of the incompressibility of nuclear matter are explored in connection with the models of type-II supernova explosions. The present calculations predict a strong decrease of the nuclear incompressibility coming from both the temperature and the asymmetry dependence. The nuclear equation of state (EOS) is calculated along an isentrope, and compared with the phenomenological nuclear EOS which has been commonly used in some hydrodynamical calculations of type-II supernova explosions.

A model based on a microscopic Brueckner--Hartree--Fock approach of hyperonic matter supplemented with additional simple phenomenological density-dependent contact terms is employed to estimate the effect of hyperonic three-body forces on the maximum mass of neutron stars. Our results show that although hyperonic three-body forces can reconcile the maximum mass of hyperonic stars with the current limit of $1.4-1.5 M_\odot$, they are unable to provide the repulsion needed to make the maximum mass compatible with the observation of massive neutron stars, such as the recent measurements of the unusually high masses of the millisecond pulsars PSR J1614-2230 ($1.97 \pm 0.04 M_\odot$) and PSR J1903+0327 ($1.667 \pm 0.021 M_\odot$)., Comment: 6 pages, 1 figure, 2 tables. Accepted for publication in EPL

The neutron-proton superfluidity for nuclear matter in the 3 S 1  3 D 1 channel is studied within the BCS formalism. In agreement with previous calculations based on the T -matrix approach, a large energy gap is found if one adopts the bare nucleon-nucleon interaction in the gap equation. The dependence of the results on the single-particle spectrum and on the nucleon-nucleon interaction is analyzed and discussed. The relevance of the results for the structure of neutron stars, nuclear matter saturation and superfluidity in finite nuclei is briefly discussed.