Heavy Stars Research Articles

X-ray and optical observations of the millisecond pulsar binary PSR J1431–4715

We present the first X-ray observation of the energetic millisecond pulsar binary PSR J1431−4715, performed with XMM-Newton and complemented with fast optical multi-band photometry acquired with the ULTRACAM instrument at ESO-NTT. It is found as a faint X-ray source without a significant orbital modulation. This contrasts with the majority of systems that instead display substantial X-ray orbital variability. The X-ray spectrum is dominated by non-thermal emission and, due to the lack of orbital modulation, does not favour an origin in an intrabinary shock between the pulsar and companion star wind. While thermal emission from the neutron star polar cap cannot be excluded in the soft X-rays, the dominance of synchrotron emission favours an origin in the pulsar magnetosphere that we describe at both X-ray and gamma-ray energies with a synchro-curvature model. The optical multi-colour light curve folded at the 10.8 h orbital period is double-humped and dominated by ellipsoidal effects, but also affected by irradiation. The ULTRACAM light curves are fit with several models encompassing direct heating and a cold spot, or heat redistribution after irradiation either through convection or convection plus diffusion. Despite the inability to constrain the best irradiation models, the fits provide consistent system parameters, giving an orbital inclination of 59 ± 6° and a distance of 3.1 ± 0.3 kpc. The companion is found to be an F-type star, underfilling its Roche lobe (fRL = 73 ± 4%) with a mass of 0.20 ± 0.04 M⊙, confirming the redback status, but hotter than the majority of redbacks. The stellar dayside and nightside temperatures of 7500 K and 7400 K, respectively, indicate a weak irradiation effect on the companion, likely due to its high intrinsic luminosity. Although the pulsar mass cannot be precisely derived, a heavy (1.8−2.2 M⊙) neutron star is favoured.

Discovery and Timing of Millisecond Pulsars in the Globular Cluster M5 with FAST and Arecibo

We report on a comprehensive multiwavelength study of the pulsars in the globular cluster (GC) M5, including the discovery of M5G, a new compact noneclipsing “black widow” pulsar. Thanks to the analysis of 34 yr of radio data taken with the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope and Arecibo telescopes, we obtained new phase-connected timing solutions for four pulsars and improved those of the other three. These have resulted in, among other things, (a) much improved proper motions for five pulsars, with transverse velocities (relative to the cluster) that are smaller than their respective escape velocities; (b) 3σ and 1.5σ detections of Shapiro delays in M5F and M5D, respectively; and (c) greatly improved measurement of the periastron advance in M5B, whose value of implies that M5B is still likely to be a heavy () neutron star. The binary pulsars M5D, M5E, and M5F are confirmed to be in low-eccentricity binary systems, the low-mass companions of which are newly identified to be He white dwarfs using Hubble Space Telescope data. Four pulsars are also found to be associated with X-ray sources. Similarly to the eclipsing pulsar M5C, M5G shows little or no nonthermal X-ray emission, indicative of weak synchrotron radiation produced by intrabinary shocks. All seven pulsars known in M5 have short spin periods (<8 ms), and five are in binary systems with low orbital eccentricities. These characteristics differ from the overall GC pulsar population but confirm the expectations for the pulsar population in a cluster with a small rate of stellar encounters per binary system.

Observations of multi-ion physics and kinetic effects in a surrogate to the solar CNO reactions

The ‘CNO process’ occurs in heavier stars with finite metallicity in which hydrogen burning is catalyzed in the presence of 12C. These reactions are more strongly dependent on temperature than the pp cycle reactions, and thus the CNO cycle dominates only in massive stars. For these types of reactions to be studied at ICF facilities such as OMEGA, an implosion platform using heavier nuclei in the fuel and capable of creating ion temperatures on the order of at least 20 keV is required. A potential route to reach these conditions is to take advantage of kinetic effects in low-convergence shock-driven ‘exploding pusher’ implosions. In this experiment, shots were conducted at the OMEGA laser facility using the surrogate reaction 13C + D. Its cross section is substantially higher than the actual astrophysical CNO reactions. The yield of this reaction in these implosions was much lower than expected. Physical explanations are discussed, with significant species stratification the likely explanation.

Symmetry energy in the KIDS framework and extension to quarkionic matter

Recent and ongoing laboratory experiments on nuclei and astronomical observations of neutron stars and gravitational waves offer valuable information on the symmetry energy and its dependence on the baryonic density ρ, S(ρ). Analytical models abound for the behavior of S(ρ) in the nucleonic regime. At high densities, however, extrapolations from the nucleonic regime become unreliable and the functional form of S(ρ) should be properly adjusted. Conveniently, the pseudoconformal symmetry emergent in dense, topologically altered nuclear matter suggests a simple expression for the energy per baryon in terms of ρ. Here, I consider a rudimentary interpolation between the Korea-IBS-Daegu-SKKU (KIDS) nucleonic equation of state (EoS) and a pseudo-conformal one at zero temperature. I assume for simplicity that the conformal limit is reached abruptly, but under continuous energy and pressure. Application to neutron stars suggestes that a crossover to quarkionic matter can lead to more compact stars or even heavier stars, depending on the precise form of the nucleonic EoS and on the order of the transition to quarkionic matter. These results are in line with previous studies of hybrid EoSs and represent only a “baby step” to further explorations with hybrid-KIDS EoSs.

Energy-Density Modeling of Strongly Interacting Matter: Atomic Nuclei and Dense Stars

We seek a simple but physically motivated model of strongly interacting matter applicable in atomic nuclei and the dense matter in the core of neutron stars. For densities below and somewhat above normal nuclear density, energy density functional (EDF) theory based on nucleonic degrees of freedom is the ideal candidate. We have explored that direction within the KIDS (Korea-IBS-Daegu-SKKU) framework, which we review in this contribution. The formalism for the KIDS-EoS and microscopic KIDS-EDF and optimization options for the EDF are described in a practical way to facilitate further applications. At densities higher than one nucleon per single-nucleon volume, i.e., roughly 0.4 fm−3, nucleonic degrees of freedom are no longer appropriate. The pseudo-conformal symmetry emergent in dense, topologically altered nuclear matter provides a simple expression for the energy per baryon in terms of the baryonic density. Besides resembling a simple EDF for dense matter, the expression has the appeal that it predicts a converged speed of sound at high densities. It can thus be implemented as a special case of the constant speed of sound (CSS) model. Here we consider a matching between representative nucleonic KIDS-EoSs and the CSS model, including the pseudo-conformal EoS, and apply the unified model to describe the mass–radius relation of neutron stars and examine the compatibility of CSS cores with heavy neutron stars. Although an abrupt transition to the pseudo-conformal regime at low densities does not favor heavy neutron stars, intermediate scenarios including a cusp in the speed of sound are not ruled out, while some appear more favorable to heavy stars than purely nucleonic matter.

A General, Scale-independent Description of the Sound Speed in Neutron Stars

Using more than a million randomly generated equations of state that satisfy theoretical and observational constraints, we construct a novel, scale-independent description of the sound speed in neutron stars, where the latter is expressed in a unit cube spanning the normalized radius, r/R, and the mass normalized to the maximum one, M/M TOV. From this generic representation, a number of interesting and surprising results can be deduced. In particular, we find that light (heavy) stars have stiff (soft) cores and soft (stiff) outer layers, or that the maximum of the sound speed is located at the center of light stars but moves to the outer layers for stars with M/M TOV ≳ 0.7, reaching a constant value of as M → M TOV. We also show that the sound speed decreases below the conformal limit at the center of stars with M = M TOV. Finally, we construct an analytic expression that accurately describes the radial dependence of the sound speed as a function of the neutron-star mass, thus providing an estimate of the maximum sound speed expected in a neutron star.

A strangely light neutron star within a supernova remnant

To constrain the equation of state of cold dense matter, astrophysical measurements are essential. These are mostly based on observations of neutron stars in the X-ray band, and, more recently, also on gravitational wave observations. Of particular interest are observations of unusually heavy or light neutron stars which extend the range of central densities probed by observations and thus permit the testing of nuclear-physics predictions over a wider parameter space. Here we report on the analysis of such a star, a central compact object within the supernova remnant HESS J1731-347. We estimate the mass and radius of the neutron star to be \(M=0.7{7}_{-0.17}^{+0.20}\,{M}_{\odot }\) and \(R=10.{4}_{-0.78}^{+0.86}\) km, respectively, based on modelling of the X-ray spectrum and a robust distance estimate from Gaia observations. Our estimate implies that this object is either the lightest neutron star known, or a ‘strange star’ with a more exotic equation of state. Adopting a standard neutron star matter hypothesis allows the corresponding equations of state to be constrained.

Neutron star properties with careful parametrization in the vector and axial-vector meson extended linear sigma model

The existence of quark matter inside the cores of heavy neutron stars is a possibility which can be probed with modern astrophysical observations. We use a vector and axial-vector meson extended quark-meson model to describe quark matter in the core of neutron stars. We discover that an additional parameter constraint is necessary in the quark model to ensure chiral restoration at high densities. By investigating hybrid star sequences with various parameter sets, we show that low sigma meson masses are needed to fulfill the upper radius constraints and that the maximum mass of stable hybrid stars is only slightly dependent on the parameters of the crossover-type phase transition. Using this observation and results from recent astrophysical measurements, a constraint of $2.5&lt;{g}_{V}&lt;4.3$ is set for the constituent quark--vector meson coupling. The effect of a nonzero bag constant is also investigated, and we observe that its effect is small for values adopted in previous works.

Two-component self-gravitating isothermal slab models

We revisit the problem of the isothermal slab (in standard Cartesian coordinates, density distributions and mean gravitational potential are considered to be independent of x and y and to be a function of z, symmetric with respect to the {{z}} = {{0}} plane) in the context of the general issues related to the role of weak collisionality in inhomogeneous self-gravitating stellar systems. We thus consider the two-component case, that is a system of heavy and light stars with assigned mass ratio ({varvec{mu }}) and assigned global relative abundance ({{alpha }}; the ratio of the total mass of the heavy and light stars). The system is imagined to start from an initial condition in which the two species are well mixed and have identical spatial and velocity distributions and to evolve into a final configuration in which collisions have generated equipartition and mass segregation. Initial and final distribution functions are assumed to be Maxwellian. Application of mass and energy conservation allows us to derive the properties of the final state from the assumed initial conditions. In general, the derivation of these properties requires a simple numerical integration of the Poisson equation. Curiously, the case in which the heavy stars are exactly twice as massive as the light stars ({{mu }} = {{2}}) turns out to admit a relatively simple analytic solution. Although the general framework of this investigation is relatively straightforward, some non-trivial issues related to energy conservation and the possible use of a virial constraint are noted and clarified. The formulation and the results of this paper prepare the way to future studies in which the evolution induced by weak collisionality will be followed either by considering the action of standard collision operators or by means of dedicated numerical simulations.

Bayesian analysis of the properties of hybrid stars with the Nambu–Jona-Lasinio model

We implement a Bayesian analysis of the properties of non-rotating hybrid stars at equilibrium with quark matter cores, as described by the SU(3) Nambu--Jona-Lasinio (NJL) model. The hadronic phase is described by a unified metamodeling approach, with a prior parameter space covering the present uncertainties on nuclear matter properties with nucleonic degrees of freedom. The parameter space of the NJL model includes vector-isoscalar and vector-isovector couplings and, additionally, an effective bag constant for the quark pressure is introduced as a free parameter. The phase transition is assumed to be first order with charge neutral phases, following the Maxwell construction. Our Bayesian framework includes filters on the experimental and theoretical low-density nuclear physics knowledge (atomic masses, ab initio calculations of the EoS) and high density constraints from astrophysical observations (maximum mass of J0348+0432, binary tidal deformability of the GW170817 event). We find that microscopic vector interactions play an important role in quark matter in order to stiffen the equation of state sufficiently to reach high star masses, in agreement with previous studies. Even within a very large prior for both the hadronic phase and the quark phase and the important freedom brought by the effective bag constant, our posterior quark cores tend to be relatively small and only appear in very heavy stars ($M\gtrsim 2 M_\odot$). Coincidentally, the inclusion of the nucleon-quark transition (deconfinement transition) only weakly affects the radii of compact stars, foreshadowing a very low observability of a possible phase transition using x-ray radii measurements.

Detailed Study of Stellar Evolution and Stellar Gravitational Collapse Leading to The Formation of Black Holes

In this paper we talk about the formation mechanism of the stellar gravitational singularities. To begin with we talk about the formation and evolution of stars and understand the Hertzsprung Russell diagram that teaches us how to classify stars. With the help of the diagram, we categorize the stars based of their physical parameters such as color, temperature, and mass. We then talk about the death cycle of different mass stars and what comes after when their fuels have been exhausted. Stars below the Chandrashekhar limit form a white dwarf at the end of their lives, while stars above the limit form a neutron star of a singularity. Further to find which of the heavy mass stars forms a singularity we look at the Tolman-Oppenheimer-Volkoff limit that states stars with mass above the limit will form singularities. The types of singularities formed depend on the solution of the general theory of relativity given by Schwarzschild, Kerr, Kerr-Newman, and Reissner-Nordström. Each of the theory aspect of the four solutions has been described to give a better understanding of the structure of the singularity formed. The paper also explains theories such as Wormholes and time travel in brief to try and explain what can replace the singularity.

Future prospects of spectroscopic study of Lambda hypernuclei at JLab and J-PARC HIHR

The (e, e′K+) reaction spectroscopy opened a door to high resolution spectroscopy of Λ hypernuclei at JLab and it is currently the only technique to give sub-MeV energy resolution for reaction spectroscopy of wide-mass range Λ hypernuclei. New experiments from light to heavy hypernuclei are under preparation at JLab to solve hypertriton puzzle, to clarify charge symmetry breaking of Λ hypernuclei and to give a clue to solve the hyperon puzzle or the puzzle of heavy neutron stars. As a hypernuclear precision spectroscopy experiment with other than electron beams, there is a newly proposed experiment using the (π+, K+) reaction at the new HIHR beamline, which is a key facility in the J-PARC hadron experimental facility extension project. The HIHR beamline adopts the momentum dispersion match technique and will enable us to perform sub-MeV resolution spectroscopy for isospin partners to the Λ hypernuclei studied with the electron beams at JLab.

Improved treatment of dark matter capture in neutron stars III: nucleon and exotic targets

We consider the capture of dark matter (DM) in neutron stars via scattering on hadronic targets, including neutrons, protons and hyperons. We extend previous analyses by including momentum dependent form factors, which account for hadronic structure, and incorporating the effect of baryon strong interactions in the dense neutron star interior, rather than modelling the baryons as a free Fermi gas. The combination of these effects suppresses the DM capture rate over a wide mass range, thus increasing the cross section for which the capture rate saturates the geometric limit. In addition, variation in the capture rate associated with the choice of neutron star equation of state is reduced.For proton targets, the use of the interacting baryon approach to obtain the correct Fermi energy is essential for an accurate evaluation of the capture rate in the Pauli-blocked regime. For heavy neutron stars, which are expected to contain exotic matter, we identify cases where DM scattering on hyperons contributes significantly to the total capture rate. Despite smaller neutron star capture rates, compared to existing analyses, we find that the projected DM-nucleon scattering sensitivity greatly exceeds that of nuclear recoil experiments for a wide DM mass range.

Quark matter and quark stars within the quasiparticle model under magnetic fields

We investigate the properties of the equation of state (EOS), the quark fraction, and the isospin asymmetry for strange quark matter (SQM) under constant magnetic field within the quasiparticle model. Our results indicate that the effect of the magnetic field is important for the properties of strange quark matter, and the recently discovered heavy compact stars PSR $\mathrm{J}0348+0432$, MSR $\text{J0740}+6620$, PSR $\text{J2215}+5135$, and especially the GW190814s secondary component ${m}_{2}$ can be well described as quark stars within the quasiparticle model under magnetic fields by approximately using spherically symmetric Tolman-Oppenheimer-Volkov (TOV) equations.

Fallback Supernova Assembly of Heavy Binary Neutron Stars and Light Black Hole–Neutron Star Pairs and the Common Stellar Ancestry of GW190425 and GW200115

Abstract The detection of the unusually heavy binary neutron star merger GW190425 marked a stark contrast to the mass distribution from known Galactic pulsars in double neutron star binaries and gravitational-wave source GW170817. We suggest here a formation channel for heavy binary neutron stars and light black hole–neutron star binaries in which massive helium stars, which had their hydrogen envelope removed during a common-envelope phase, remain compact and avoid mass transfer onto the neutron star companion, possibly avoiding pulsar recycling. We present three-dimensional simulations of the supernova explosion of the massive stripped helium star and follow the mass fallback evolution and the subsequent accretion onto the neutron star companion. We find that fallback leads to significant mass growth in the newly formed neutron star. This can explain the formation of heavy binary neutron star systems such as GW190425, as well as predict the assembly of light black hole–neutron star systems such as GW200115. This formation avenue is consistent with the observed mass–eccentricity correlation of binary neutron stars in the Milky Way. Finally, avoiding mass transfer suggests an unusually long spin-period population of pulsar binaries in our Galaxy.

Photometry and Kinematics of Self-gravitating Eccentric Nuclear Disks

Abstract The Andromeda galaxy hosts an elongated nucleus with (at least) two distinct brightness peaks. The double nucleus can be explained by the projection of a thick, apsidally aligned eccentric nuclear disk of stars in orbit about the central black hole. Several nearby early-type galaxies have similar asymmetric nuclear features, indicating the possible presence of eccentric nuclear disks. We create simulated photometric (surface density) and kinematic (line-of-sight velocity) maps of eccentric nuclear disks using N-body simulations. We image our simulations from various lines of sight in order to classify them as double nuclei, offset nuclei, and centered nuclei. We explore the effects of mass segregation on the photometric maps, finding that heavier stars are concentrated in the brighter peak. The average line-of-sight velocity values are lower in an eccentric nuclear disk than for a circular ring about the supermassive black hole. The velocity dispersion values are higher and peak at the position of the supermassive black hole, which does not typically match the peak in photometry.

Radius and equation of state constraints from massive neutron stars and GW190814

Motivated by the unknown nature of the $2.50-2.67\,M_\odot$ compact object in the binary merger event GW190814, we study the maximum neutron star mass based on constraints from low-energy nuclear physics, neutron star tidal deformabilities from GW170817, and simultaneous mass-radius measurements of PSR J0030+045 from NICER. Our prior distribution is based on a combination of nuclear modeling valid in the vicinity of normal nuclear densities together with the assumption of a maximally stiff equation of state at high densities, a choice that enables us to probe the connection between observed heavy neutron stars and the transition density at which conventional nuclear physics models must break down. We demonstrate that a modification of the highly uncertain supra-saturation density equation of state beyond 2.64 times normal nuclear density is required in order for chiral effective field theory models to be consistent with current neutron star observations and the existence of $2.6\,M_\odot$ neutron stars. We also show that the existence of very massive neutron stars strongly impacts the radii of $\sim 2.0\,M_\odot$ neutron stars (but not necessarily the radii of $1.4\,M_\odot$ neutron stars), which further motivates future NICER radius measurements of PSR J1614-2230 and PSR J0740+6620.

Constraints on the Dense Matter Equation of State and Neutron Star Properties from NICER’s Mass–Radius Estimate of PSR J0740+6620 and Multimessenger Observations

Abstract In recent years our understanding of the dense matter equation of state (EOS) of neutron stars has significantly improved by analyzing multimessenger data from radio/X-ray pulsars, gravitational wave events, and from nuclear physics constraints. Here we study the additional impact on the EOS from the jointly estimated mass and radius of PSR J0740+6620, presented in Riley et al. by analyzing a combined data set from X-ray telescopes NICER and XMM-Newton. We employ two different high-density EOS parameterizations: a piecewise-polytropic (PP) model and a model based on the speed of sound in a neutron star (CS). At nuclear densities these are connected to microscopic calculations of neutron matter based on chiral effective field theory (EFT) interactions. In addition to the new NICER data for this heavy neutron star, we separately study constraints from the radio timing mass measurement of PSR J0740+6620, the gravitational wave events of binary neutron stars GW190425 and GW170817, and for the latter the associated kilonova AT2017gfo. By combining all these, and the NICER mass–radius estimate of PSR J0030+0451, we find the radius of a 1.4 M ⊙ neutron star to be constrained to the 95% credible ranges 12.33 − 0.81 + 0.76 km (PP model) and 12.18 − 0.79 + 0.56 km (CS model). In addition, we explore different chiral EFT calculations and show that the new NICER results provide tight constraints for the pressure of neutron star matter at around twice saturation density, which shows the power of these observations to constrain dense matter interactions at intermediate densities.

Heavy Magnetic Neutron Stars

Abstract We systematically study the properties of pure nucleonic and hyperonic magnetic stars using a density-dependent relativistic mean-field (DD-RMF) equations of state. We explore several parameter sets and hyperon coupling schemes within the DD-RMF formalism. We focus on sets that are in better agreement with nuclear and other astrophysical data while generating heavy neutron stars. Magnetic field effects are included in the matter equation of state and in general relativity solutions, which in addition fulfill Maxwell’s equations. We find that pure nucleonic matter, even without magnetic field effects, generates neutron stars that satisfy the potential GW 190814 mass constraint; however, this is not the case for hyperonic matter, which instead only satisfies the more conservative 2.1 M ⊙ constraint. In the presence of strong but still somehow realistic internal magnetic fields ≈1017 G, the stellar charged particle population re-leptonizes and de-hyperonizes. As a consequence, magnetic fields stiffen hyperonic equations of state and generate more massive neutron stars, which can satisfy the possible GW 190814 mass constraint but present a large deformation with respect to spherical symmetry.

Quark star matter at finite temperature in a quasiparticle model

We study the thermodynamic properties of asymmetric quark matter, large mass quark stars (QSs), and proto-quark stars (PQSs) within the quasiparticle model. Considering the effects of temperature within quasiparticle model can significantly influence the EOS and the entropy of strange quark matter (SQM), quark fractions in SQM, as well as the tidal deformability and the maximum mass of PQSs along the star evolution line. Our results indicate that the recent discovered heavy compact stars PSR J0348+0432, MSR J0740+6620, PSR J2215+5135, and especially the GW190814’s secondary component m_2 can be well described as QSs within the quasiparticle model. The tidal deformability for the QSs describing the heavy compact stars is extremely large, which can not well describe GW170817 as QSs, and the effects of the temperature in the heating process along the star evolution will further increase the tidal deformability and the maximum mass of PQSs.