Andrew Steiner, University of Washington
April 22, 2014

Recent neutron star observations have had a drastic impact on both neutron star models and nuclear physics. The measurement of two 2 solar mass neutron stars has ruled out most of the previously accepted theoretical models. As of 6 years ago, neutron star radii were commonly accepted to be between 8 and 15 km. Recent neutron star radius measurements suggest a smaller range, between 10 and 13 km. Neutron stars are the only laboratory in which we can study cold, dense, and strongly-interacting matter, and thus all of these observations have important implications for nuclear physics. Neutron star radius measurements constrain models of three-neutron forces and the so-called "nuclear symmetry energy", both of which are not well-constrained by data from nuclei accessible in the laboratory. I will show how these constraints arise from the observational data and demonstrate that there is a growing concordance with advances in quantum Monte Carlo simulations of pure neutron matter and chiral effective theory.

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