A New Constraint on the Nuclear Equation of State from Statistical Distributions of Compact Remnants of Supernovae

Understanding how matter behaves at the highest densities and temperatures is a major open problem in both nuclear physics and relativistic astrophysics. Our understanding of such behavior is often encapsulated in the so-called high-temperature nuclear equation of state (EOS), which influences compact binary mergers, core-collapse supernovae, and other phenomena. Our focus is on the type (either black hole or neutron star) and mass of the remnant of the core collapse of a massive star. For each six candidates of equations of state, we use a very large suite of spherically symmetric supernova models to generate a sample of synthetic populations of such remnants. We then compare these synthetic populations to the observed remnant population. Our study provides a novel constraint on the high-temperature nuclear EOS and describes which EOS candidates are more or less favored by an information-theoretic metric.

Automated summary

This study investigates the properties of the high-temperature nuclear equation of state (EOS), which impacts the type and mass of remnants after stellar collapse. By comparing synthetic populations with observed data, the study provides an evaluation of different EOS candidates.