Hot and Dense Matter Equation of State Probability Distributions for Astrophysical Simulations

Understand

We add an ensemble of nuclei to the equation of state for homogeneous nucleonic matter to generate a new set of models suitable for astrophysical simulations of core-collapse supernovae and neutron star mergers.

• We implement empirical constraints from (i) nuclear mass measurements, (ii) proton-proton scattering phase shifts, and (iii) neutron star observations.
• Our model is also guided by microscopic many-body theory calculations based on realistic nuclear forces, including the zero-temperature neutron matter equation of state from quantum Monte Carlo simulations and thermal contributions to the free energy from finite-temperature many-body perturbation theory.
• We ensure that the parameters of our model can be varied while preserving thermodynamic consistency and the connection to experimental or observational data, thus providing a probability distribution of the astrophysical hot and dense matter equation of state.