Spin-polarized neutron matter, the maximum mass of neutron stars, and GW170817

Abstract

We investigate how a phase transition from neutron-star matter to spin-polarized neutron matter affects the equation of state and mass-radius relation of neutron stars. While general extension schemes for the equation of state allow for high pressures inside neutron stars, we find that a phase transition to spin-polarized neutron matter excludes extreme regimes. Hence, such a transition limits the maximum mass of neutron stars to lie below 2.6$-$$2.9M_{\odot }$, depending on the microscopic nuclear forces used, while significantly larger masses could be reached without these constraints. These limits are in good agreement with recent constraints extracted from the neutron-star merger GW170817 and its electromagnetic counterpart. Assuming the description in terms of spin-polarized neutron matter to be valid in the center of neutron stars, we find that stars with a large spin-polarized domain in their core are ruled out by GW170817.

10 pages, 3 figures, published version

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• Constraining the dense matter equation of state with joint analysis of NICER and LIGO/Virgo measurements
• On the maximum mass of neutron stars and GW190814
• On the nature of GW190814 and its impact on the understanding of supranuclear matter
• On the effects of the Initial Mass Function on Galactic chemical enrichment
• Spin-polarized $\beta$-stable neutron star matter: the nuclear symmetry energy and GW170817 constraint
• New Skyrme parametrizations to describe finite nuclei and neutron star matter with realistic effective masses. II. Adjusting the spin-dependent terms
• The spin-polarized ferromagnetic state of a cold Fermi gas