Bounds on the speed of sound in dense matter, and neutron star structure

Understand

The accurate determination of the maximum mass of the neutron stars is one of the most important tasks in astrophysics.

• It is directly related to the identification of the black holes in the universe, the production of neutron stars from the supernovae explosion, and the equation of state (EoS) of dense matter.
• However, not only the EoS is directly connected with neutron star masses, but also the speed of sound in dense matter is a crucial quantity which characterizes the stiffness of the EoS.
• The upper bound of the speed of sound imposes strong constraints on the maximum mass of neutron stars.