Global properties of rotating neutron stars with QCD equations of state

Understand

We numerically investigate global properties of rotating neutron stars using the allowed band of QCD equations of state derived by Kurkela et al.

• This band is constrained by chiral effective theory at low densities and perturbative QCD at high densities, and is thus, in essence, a controlled constraint from first-principles physics.
• Previously, this band of equations of state was used to investigate non-rotating neutron stars only; in this work, we extend these results to any rotation frequency below the mass-shedding limit.
• We investigate mass--radius curves, allowed mass--frequency regions, radius--frequency curves for a typical 1.4-solar-mass star, and the values of the moment of inertia of the double pulsar PSR J0737-3039A, a pulsar whose moment of inertia may be constrained observationally in a few years.