Bounds on the speed of sound in dense matter, and neutron star structure

The accurate determination of the maximum mass of the neutron stars is one of the most important tasks in astrophysics. It is directly related to the identification of the black holes in the universe, the production of neutron stars from the supernovae explosion, and the equation of state (EoS) of dense matter. However, not only the EoS is directly connected with neutron star masses, but also the speed of sound in dense matter is a crucial quantity which characterizes the stiffness of the EoS. The upper bound of the speed of sound imposes strong constraints on the maximum mass of neutron stars. However, this upper bound remains still an open issue. Recent observations, of binary neutron star systems, offer the possibility of measuring with high accuracy both the mass and the tidal polarizability of the stars. We study possible effects of the upper bound of the speed of sound on the upper bound of the mass and the tidal polarizability. We conclude that these kinds of measurements, combined with recent observations of neutron stars with masses close to 2M(circle dot), will provide robust constraints on the equation of state of hadronic matter at high densities.