Nuclear Matter and Neutron Stars from Relativistic Brueckner–Hartree–Fock Theory

Abstract

The momentum and isospin dependence of the single-particle potential for the in-medium nucleon are the key quantities in the Relativistic Brueckner–Hartree–Fock (RBHF) theory. It depends on how to extract the scalar and the vector components of the single-particle potential inside nuclear matter. In contrast to the RBHF calculations in the Dirac space with the positive-energy states (PESs) only, the single-particle potential can be determined in a unique way by the RBHF theory together with the negative-energy states, i.e., the RBHF theory in the full Dirac space. The saturation properties of symmetric and asymmetric nuclear matter in the full Dirac space are systematically investigated based on the realistic Bonn nucleon–nucleon potentials. In order to further specify the importance of the calculations in the full Dirac space, the neutron star properties are investigated. The direct URCA process in neutron star cooling will happen at density ρ DURCA = 0.43, 0.48, 0.52 fm−3 with proton fractions of Y p,DURCA = 0.13. The radii of a 1.4M ⊙ neutron star are predicated as km, and their tidal deformabilities are for potential Bonn A, B, C. Compared with the results obtained in the Dirac space with PESs only, the full-Dirac-space RBHF calculation predicts the softest symmetry energy, which would be more favored by the gravitational wave detection of GW170817. Furthermore, the results from the full-Dirac-space RBHF theory are consistent with the recent astronomical observations of massive neutron stars and simultaneous mass–radius measurement.