Prior probability distributions of neutron star crust models

Abstract

To make best use of multi-faceted astronomical and nuclear data-sets, probability distributions of neutron star models that can be used to propagate errors consistently from one domain to another are required. We take steps toward a consistent model for this purpose, highlight where model inconsistencies occur and assess the resulting model uncertainty. Using two distributions of nuclear symmetry energy parameters - one uniform, the other based on pure neutron matter theory, we prepare two ensembles of neutron star inner crust models. We use an extended Skyrme energy-density functional within a compressible liquid drop model (CLDM). We fit the surface parameters of the CLDM to quantum 3D Hartree-Fock calculations of crustal nuclei. All models predict more than 50% of the crust by mass and 15% of the crust by thickness comprises pasta with medians of around 62% and 30% respectively. We also present 68% and 95% ranges for the crust composition as a function of density. We examine the relationships between crust-core boundary and pasta transition properties, the thickness of the pasta layers, the symmetry energy at saturation and sub-saturation densities and the neutron skins of 208Pb and 48Ca. We quantify the correlations using the maximal information coefficient, which can effectively characterize non-linear relationships. Future measurements of neutron skins, information from nuclear masses and giant resonances, and theoretical constraints on PNM will be able to place constraints on the location of the pasta and crust-core boundaries and the amount of pasta in the crust.

43 pages, 29 figures, Revised submission to ApJ Supplement

References in corpus (29)

• Neutron Star Observations: Prognosis for Equation of State Constraints
• Neutron skin of 208Pb, nuclear symmetry energy, and the parity radius experiment
• Neutron matter at next-to-next-to-next-to-leading order in chiral effective field theory
• The Giant Dipole Resonance as a quantitative constraint on the symmetry energy
• Core-crust transition in neutron stars: predictivity of density developments
• Higher-order effects on the incompressibility of isospin asymmetric nuclear matter
• Disordered nuclear pasta, magnetic field decay, and crust cooling in neutron stars
• Quantum Monte Carlo calculation of the equation of state of neutron matter
• The symmetry energy at subnuclear densities and nuclei in neutron star crusts
• Using Neutron Star Observations to Determine Crust Thicknesses, Moments of Inertia, and Tidal Deformabilities
• Equation of state and thickness of the inner crust of neutron stars
• A New Open-Source Nuclear Equation of State Framework based on the Liquid-Drop Model with Skyrme Interaction
• Probing the Equation of State of Nuclear Matter via Neutron Star Asteroseismology
• Constraints on Neutron Star Crusts From Oscillations in Giant Flares
• Pulsar Glitches: The Crust may be Enough
• Towards order-by-order calculations of the nuclear and neutron matter equations of state in chiral effective field theory
• The nuclear symmetry energy and stability of matter in neutron star
• Exploring the extended density-dependent Skyrme effective forces for normal and isospin-rich nuclei to neutron stars
• From the lightest nuclei to the equation of state of asymmetric nuclear matter with realistic nuclear interactions
• Generic Constraints on the Relativistic Mean-Field and Skyrme-Hartree-Fock Models from the Pure Neutron Matter Equation of State
• Spectrum of shear modes in the neutron-star crust: Estimating the nuclear-physics uncertainties
• Constraints on the symmetry energy from observational probes of the neutron star crust
• Error Analysis in Nuclear Density Functional Theory
• The nuclear symmetry energy from neutron skins and pure neutron matter in a Bayesian framework
• Exploration of a modified density dependence in the Skyrme functional
• EoS constraints from nuclear masses and radii in a meta-modeling approach
• Resonant Shattering Flares as Multimessenger Probes of the Nuclear Symmetry Energy
• Phase transitions in Core-Collapse Supernova Matter at sub-saturation densities
• Parametrization of the surface energy in the ETF approximation

Cited by in corpus (7)

• Dense Nuclear Matter Equation of State from Heavy-Ion Collisions
• Constraining Nuclear Symmetry Energy with Multi-messenger Resonant Shattering Flares
• Resonant Shattering Flares as Multimessenger Probes of the Nuclear Symmetry Energy
• Glassy quantum nuclear pasta in neutron star crusts
• Pasta properties of the neutron star within effective relativistic mean-field model
• From neutron skins and neutron matter to the neutron star crust
• Do short range correlations inhibit the appearance of the nuclear pasta?