TY - JOUR
T1 - The maximum mass of a neutron star
AU - Kalogera, Vassiliki
AU - Baym, Gordon
N1 - Funding Information:
It is a pleasure to thank Arya Akmal for useful discussions and Dimitrios Psaltis for helpful comments and for a critical reading of the manuscript. This work was supported in part by NSF grants AST92-18074 and PHY94-21309.
PY - 1996/10/10
Y1 - 1996/10/10
N2 - Observational identification of black holes as members of binary systems requires the knowledge of the upper limit on the gravitational mass of a neutron star. We use modern equations of state for neutron star matter, fitted to experimental nucleon-nucleon scattering data and the properties of light nuclei, to calculate, within the framework of Rhoades & Ruffini (1974), the minimum upper limit on a neutron star mass. Regarding the equation of state as valid up to twice nuclear matter saturation density, ρnm, we obtain a secure upper bound on the neutron star mass equal to 2.9 M⊙. We also find that in order to reach the lowest possible upper bound of 2.2 M⊙, we need to understand the physical properties of neutron matter up to a density of ∼4ρnm.
AB - Observational identification of black holes as members of binary systems requires the knowledge of the upper limit on the gravitational mass of a neutron star. We use modern equations of state for neutron star matter, fitted to experimental nucleon-nucleon scattering data and the properties of light nuclei, to calculate, within the framework of Rhoades & Ruffini (1974), the minimum upper limit on a neutron star mass. Regarding the equation of state as valid up to twice nuclear matter saturation density, ρnm, we obtain a secure upper bound on the neutron star mass equal to 2.9 M⊙. We also find that in order to reach the lowest possible upper bound of 2.2 M⊙, we need to understand the physical properties of neutron matter up to a density of ∼4ρnm.
KW - Dense matter
KW - Stars: neutron
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U2 - 10.1086/310296
DO - 10.1086/310296
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0002352486
SN - 0004-637X
VL - 470
SP - L61-L64
JO - Astrophysical Journal
JF - Astrophysical Journal
IS - 1 PART II
ER -