Maximum mass cutoff in the neutron star mass distribution and the prospect of forming supramassive objects in the double neutron star mergers

Abstract

The sample of neutron stars with a measured mass is growing quickly. With the latest sample, we adopt both a flexible Gaussian mixture model and a Gaussian plus Cauchy-Lorentz component model to infer the mass distribution of neutron stars and use the Bayesian model selection to explore evidence for multimodality and a sharp cutoff in the mass distribution. The two models yield rather similar results. Consistent with previous studies, we find evidence for a bimodal distribution together with a cutoff at a mass of $M_{\max }=2.26_{-0.05}^{+0.12}{M}_{\odot }$ (68% credible interval; for the Gaussian mixture model). If such a cutoff is interpreted as the maximum gravitational mass of nonrotating cold neutron stars, the prospect of forming supramassive remnants is found to be quite promising for the double neutron star mergers with a total gravitational mass less than or equal to 2.7$M_{\odot }$ unless the thermal pions could substantially soften the equation of state for the very hot neutron star matter. These supramassive remnants have a typical kinetic rotational energy of approximately $1-2\times 10^{53}$ ergs. Together with a high neutron star merger rate approximately $10^3\mathrm{Gp}{\mathrm{c}}^{-3}\mathrm{y}{\mathrm{r}}^{-3}$, the neutron star mergers are expected to be significant sources of EeV($10^{18}$eV) cosmic-ray protons.

17 pages, 9 figures, and 1 table. Published in PRD

References in corpus (31)

• GW170817: Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Neutron Star Inspiral
• A Massive Pulsar in a Compact Relativistic Binary
• X-ray Properties of Black-Hole Binaries
• PSR J0030+0451 Mass and Radius from NICER Data and Implications for the Properties of Neutron Star Matter
• A NICER View of PSR J0030+0451: Millisecond Pulsar Parameter Estimation
• The ATNF Pulsar Catalogue
• Tests of general relativity from timing the double pulsar
• The Parkes multibeam pulsar survey: VI. Discovery and timing of 142 pulsars and a Galactic population analysis
• Timing Measurements of the Relativistic Binary Pulsar PSR B1913+16
• Symmetry Energy I: Semi-Infinite Matter
• Neutron star mass and radius measurements from atmospheric model fits to X-ray burst cooling tail spectra
• Eight New Millisecond Pulsars in NGC 6440 and NGC 6441
• The ephemeris, orbital decay, and masses of 10 eclipsing HMXBs
• Measurement of Orbital Decay in the Double Neutron Star Binary PSR B2127+11C
• The relativistic pulsar-white dwarf binary PSR J1738+0333 I. Mass determination and evolutionary history
• The Green Bank Telescope 350 MHz Drift-scan Survey II: Data Analysis and the Timing of 10 New Pulsars, Including a Relativistic Binary
• PSR J1756$-$2251: a pulsar with a low-mass neutron star companion
• The Binary Companion of Young, Relativistic Pulsar J1906+0746
• A Massive Neutron Star in the Globular Cluster M5
• The masses of PSR J1911-5958A and its white dwarf companion
• Multi-telescope timing of PSR J1518+4904
• Narrow-band search for gravitational waves from known pulsars using the second LIGO observing run
• Lense-Thirring frame dragging induced by a fast-rotating white dwarf in a binary pulsar system
• The binary pulsar PSR J1811-1736: evidence of a low amplitude supernova kick
• PSR J1930-1852: a pulsar in the widest known orbit around another neutron star
• PUSHing core-collapse supernovae to explosions in spherical symmetry IV: Explodability, remnant properties and nucleosynthesis yields of low metallicity stars
• A Massive Millisecond Pulsar in an Eccentric Binary
• Is GW190425 consistent with being a neutron star$-$black hole merger?
• On the mass of the neutron star in V395 Car/2S 0921-630
• An active, asynchronous companion to a redback millisecond pulsar
• The Masses of Isolated Neutron Stars Inferred from the Gravitational Redshift Measurements

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Constraints on the phase transition and nuclear symmetry parameters from PSR $\mathrm{J}0740+6620$ and multimessenger data of other neutron stars
• Population Properties of Gravitational-Wave Neutron Star--Black Hole Mergers
• On the Neutron Star/Black Hole Mass Gap and Black Hole Searches
• Prospects of constraining $f(T)$ gravity with the third-generation gravitational-wave detectors
• The Bulk Properties of Isolated Neutron Stars Inferred from the Gravitational Redshift Measurements