Microscopic calculation of the equation of state of nuclear matter and neutron star structure

Abstract

Abstract We present results for neutron star models constructed with a new equation of state for nuclear matter at zero temperature. The ground state is computed using the auxiliary field diffusion Monte Carlo (AFDMC) technique, with nucleons interacting via a semiphenomenological Hamiltonian including a realistic two-body interaction. The effect of many-body forces is included by means of additional density-dependent terms in the Hamiltonian. In this Letter, we compare the properties of the resulting neutron star models with those obtained using other nuclear Hamiltonians, focusing on the relations between mass and radius, and between the gravitational mass and the baryon number.