Relativistic Description of Dense Matter Equation of State and Compatibility with Neutron Star Observables: A Bayesian Approach

Abstract

Abstract The general behavior of the nuclear equation of state (EOS), relevant for the description of neutron stars (NSs), is studied within a Bayesian approach applied to a set of models based on a density-dependent relativistic mean-field description of nuclear matter. The EOS is subjected to a minimal number of constraints based on nuclear saturation properties and the low-density pure neutron matter EOS obtained from a precise next-to-next-to-next-to-leading order (N3LO) calculation in chiral effective field theory (χEFT). The posterior distributions of the model parameters obtained under these minimal constraints are employed to construct the distributions of various nuclear matter properties and NS properties such as radii, tidal deformabilities, central energy densities, speeds of sound, etc. We found that a 90% confidence interval for the allowed NS mass–radius relationship and tidal deformabilities is compatible with GW170817 and recent Neutron star Interior Composition ExploreR observations, without invoking the exotic degrees of freedom. A central speed of sound of the order of 2 / 3 c is obtained. The maximum NS mass allowed by the model is 2.5 M ⊙.