Density-dependent van der Waals model under the GW170817 constraint

Abstract

We propose a density-dependent function for the attractive interaction in the original van der Waals model to correctly describe the flow constraint at the high-density regime of the symmetric nuclear matter. After a generalization to asymmetric nuclear matter, it was also possible to study the stellar matter regime from this new model. The mass-radius relation for neutron stars under $\beta$-equilibrium is found to agree with recent X-ray observations. The neutron star masses supported against gravity, obtained from some parametrizations of the model, are in the range of $(1.97-2.07)M_{\odot }$, compatible with observational data from the PSR J0348+0432 pulsar. Furthermore, we verify the reliability of the model in predicting tidal deformabilities of the binary system related to the GW170817 neutron star merger event and find a full agreement with the new bounds obtained by the LIGO/Virgo collaboration.

Comments: 11 pages, 7 figures. Accepted to ApJ. Two references added