Nuclear limits on properties of pulsars and gravitational waves

Abstract

Pulsars are among the most mysterious astrophysical objects in the Universe and are believed to be rotating neutron stars formed in supernova explosions. They are unique testing grounds of dense matter theories and gravitational physics and also provide links among nuclear physics, particle physics and General Relativity. Neutron stars may exhibit some of the most extreme and exotic characteristics that could not be found elsewhere in the Universe. Their properties are largely determined by the equation of state (EOS) of neutron-rich matter, which is the chief ingredient in calculating neutron star structure and properties of related phenomena, such as gravitational wave emission from deformed pulsars. Presently, the EOS of neutron-rich matter is still very uncertain mainly due to the poorly known density dependence of the nuclear symmetry energy especially at supra-saturation densities. Nevertheless, significant progress has been made recently in constraining the density dependence of the nuclear symmetry energy mostly at sub-saturation densities using terrestrial nuclear reactions. While there are still some uncertainties especially at supra-saturation densities, these constraints could provide useful information on the limits of the global properties of pulsars and the gravitational waves to be expected from them. Here we review our recent work on constraining properties of pulsars and gravitational radiation with data from terrestrial nuclear laboratories.

45 pages, 23 figures and 8 tables. Invited review article by Nova Science Publishers for the edited collection "Pulsars: Theory, Categories and Applications". In press

References in corpus (5)

• Beating the spin-down limit on gravitational wave emission from the Vela pulsar
• Why is the nuclear symmetry energy so uncertain at supra-saturation densities?
• Constraining the gravitational binding energy of PSR J0737-3039B using terrestrial nuclear data
• Current status of Dirac-Brueckner-Hartree-Fock calculations in asymmetric nuclear matter
• Phase Transitions in Dense Baryonic Matter and Cooling of Rotating Neutron Stars

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Towards Understanding Astrophysical Effects of Nuclear Symmetry Energy
• Constraints on the inner edge of neutron star crusts from relativistic nuclear energy density functionals
• Prompt gamma-ray emission of GRB 170817A associated to GW 170817: A consistent picture
• Binary Neutron Star (BNS) merger: What we learned from relativistic ejecta of GW/GRB~170817A