Maximum mass and radius of neutron stars, and the nuclear symmetry energy
Maximum mass and radius of neutron stars, and the nuclear symmetry energy
We calculate the equation of state of neutron matter with realistic two- and three-nucleon interactions using quantum Monte Carlo techniques, and illustrate that the short-range three-neutron interaction determines the correlation between neutron matter energy at nuclear saturation density and higher densities relevant to neutron stars. Our model also makes an …