What neutron stars tell about the hadron-quark phase transition: a Bayesian study
Phys. Rev. D 108, 043002 (2023) The existence of quark matter inside the heaviest neutron stars has been the topic of numerous recent studies, many of them suggesting that a phase transition to strongly interacting conformal matter inside neutron stars is feasible. Here we examine this hybrid star s...
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Main Authors: | , , , |
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Format: | Journal Article |
Language: | English |
Published: |
20-07-2023
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Subjects: | |
Online Access: | Get full text |
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Summary: | Phys. Rev. D 108, 043002 (2023) The existence of quark matter inside the heaviest neutron stars has been the
topic of numerous recent studies, many of them suggesting that a phase
transition to strongly interacting conformal matter inside neutron stars is
feasible. Here we examine this hybrid star scenario using a soft and a stiff
hadronic model, a constituent quark model with three quark flavours, and
applying a smooth crossover transition between the two. Within a Bayesian
framework, we study the effect of up-to-date constraints from neutron star
observations on the equation-of-state parameters and various neutron star
observables. Our results show that a pure quark core is only possible if the
maximum mass of neutron stars is below $\sim2.35~M_\odot$. However, we also
find, consistently with other studies, that a peak in the speed of sound,
exceeding $1/3$, is highly favoured by astrophysical measurements, which might
indicate the percolation of hadrons at $\sim3-4n_0$. Even though our prediction
for the phase transition parameters varies depending on the specific
astrophysical constraints utilized, the position of the speed of sound peak
only changes slightly, while the existence of pure quark matter below $\sim4
n_0$, using our parameterization, is disfavoured. On the other hand, the
preferred range for the EoS shows signs of conformality above $\sim4n_0$.
Additionally, we present the difference in the upper bounds of radius estimates
using the full probability density data and sharp cut-offs, and stress the
necessity of using the former. |
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DOI: | 10.48550/arxiv.2303.00013 |