[Submitted on 22 Sept 2017] (cross-list from astro-ph.HE)
Evidence for a maximum mass cut-off in the neutron star mass distribution and constraints on the equation of state
Justin Alsing🇺🇸 · Hector O. Silva🇺🇸 · Emanuele Berti🇺🇸
We infer the mass distribution of neutron stars in binary systems using a flexible Gaussian mixture model and use Bayesian model selection to explore evidence for multi-modality and a sharp cut-off in the mass distribution. We find overwhelming evidence for a bimodal distribution, in agreement with previous literature, and report for the first time positive evidence for a sharp cut-off at a maximum neutron star mass. We measure the maximum mass to be (68\%), (90\%), and evidence for a cut-off is robust against the choice of model for the mass distribution and to removing the most extreme (highest mass) neutron stars from the dataset. If this sharp cut-off is interpreted as the maximum stable neutron star mass allowed by the equation of state of dense matter, our measurement puts constraints on the equation of state. For a set of realistic equations of state that support neutron stars, our inference of is able to distinguish between models at odds ratios of up to , whilst under a flexible piecewise polytropic equation of state model our maximum mass measurement improves constraints on the pressure at the nuclear saturation density by compared to simply requiring . We obtain a lower bound on the maximum sound speed attained inside the neutron star of (99.8\%), ruling out at high significance. Our constraints on the maximum neutron star mass strengthen the case for neutron star-neutron star mergers as the primary source of short gamma-ray bursts.
- Comments:
- 16 pages, 10 figures, updated to MNRAS accepted version (24 Apr 2018)
- Subjects:
- High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE); General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc); Nuclear Theory (nucl-th)
- arXiv:
- 1709.07889 [pdf]