We present a Bayesian analysis to constrain the equation of state of dense nucleonic matter by exploiting the available data from symmetric nuclear matter at saturation and from observations of compact X-ray sources and from the gravitational wave event GW170817. For the first time, such analysis is performed by using a class of models, the relativistic mean field models, which allow to consistently construct an equation of state in a wide range of densities, isospin asymmetries and temperatures. The selected class of models contains five nuclear physics empirical parameters at saturation for which we construct the joint posterior distributions. By exploring different types of priors, we find that the equations of state with the largest evidence are the ones featuring a strong reduction of the effective mass of the nucleons in dense matter which can be interpreted as an indication of a phase transition to a chiral symmetry restored phase. Those equations of state in turn predict $R_{1.4} \sim 12$ km. Finally, we present a preliminary investigation on the effect of including $Λ$ hyperons showing that they appear in stars more massive than about $1.6 M_{\odot}$ and lead to radii larger than about $R_{1.4} \sim 14$ km. Within the model here explored, the formation of such particles provide a poor agreement with the constraints from GW170817.
We study the role of pions in hot dense matter encountered in astrophysics. We find that strong interactions enhance the number density of negatively charged pions and that this enhancement can be calculated reliably for a relevant range of density and temperature using the virial expansion. We assess the influence of pions and muons on the equation of state (EOS) and weak interaction rates in hot dense matter. We find that thermal pions increase the proton fraction and soften the EOS. We also find that charged current weak reactions involving pions and muons $\barν_μ+μ^- \rightarrow π$ and $ν…
We perform a Bayesian analysis of probability measures for compact star equations of state using new, disjunct constraints for mass and radius. The analysis uses a simple parametrization for hybrid equations of state to investigate the possibility of a first order deconfinement transition in compact stars. The latter question is relevant for the possible existence of a critical endpoint in the QCD phase diagram under scrutiny in heavy-ion collisions.
This conference proceeding presents an overview of the modern approaches in the study of baryonic matter at high densities, focusing on the use of online repositories such as CompOSE and MUSES for the calculation of neutron star properties. In this context, relevant astrophysical constraints for the equations of state (mass-radius relation, speed of sound, tidal deformability) are discussed.
A flux of extra-terrestrial neutrinos at energies $\gg10^{15}$ eV has the potential to serve as a cosmological probe of the high-energy universe as well as tests of fundamental particle interactions. Cosmogenic neutrinos, produced from the interactions of ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) with cosmic photon backgrounds, have been regarded as a guaranteed flux. However, the expected neutrino flux depends on the composition of UHECRs at the highest energies; heavier nuclei result in lower neutrino fluxes compared to lighter nuclei and protons. The objective of this study is to estimate the …
Ever since the discovery of neutron stars it has been realized that they serve as probes of a physical regime that cannot be accessed in laboratories: strongly degenerate matter at several times nuclear saturation density. Existing nuclear theories diverge widely in their predictions about such matter. It could be that the matter is primarily nucleons, but it is also possible that exotic species such as hyperons, free quarks, condensates, or strange matter may dominate this regime. Astronomical observations of cold high-density matter are necessarily indirect, which means that we must rely on …
Bayesian inferences on covariant density functionals from multimessenger astrophysical data: Influences of parametrizations of density dependent couplings
Institute of Theoretical Physics, Shanxi University（山西大学理论物理研究所）；School of Science, Huzhou University（湖州学院理学院）；School of Physical Science and Technology, Southwest University（西南大学物理科学与技术学院）；Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies（法兰克福高等研究院）；Institute of Theoretical Physics, University of Wrocław（弗罗茨瓦夫大学理论物理研究所）；China Institute of Atomic Energy（中国原子能科学研究院）
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 t…
The surface tension of cold and dense QCD phase transitions has appeared recently as a key ingredient in different astrophysical scenarios, ranging from core-colapse supernovae explosions to compact star structure. If the surface tension is low enough, observable consequences are possible. Its value is however not known from first-principle methods in QCD, calling for effective approaches. Working within the framework of homogeneous nucleation by Langer, we discuss the steps that are needed to obtain the nucleation parameters from a given effective potential. As a model for deriving the effect…
Gravitational waves from the coalescence of binary black holes can be distinguished from noise transients in a detector network through Bayesian model selection by exploiting the coherence of the signal across the network. We present a Bayesian framework for calculating the posterior probability that a signal is of astrophysical origin, agnostic to the specific search strategy, pipeline or search domain with which a candidate is identified. We apply this framework under \textit{identical} assumptions to all events reported in the LIGO-Virgo GWTC-1 catalog, GW190412 and numerous event candidate…
The light we receive from distant astrophysical objects carries information about their origins and the physical mechanisms that power them. The study of these signals, however, is complicated by the fact that observations are often a mixture of the light emitted by multiple localized sources situated in a spatially-varying background. A general algorithm to achieve robust and accurate source identification in this case remains an open question in astrophysics. This paper focuses on high-energy light (such as X-rays and gamma-rays), for which observatories can detect individual photons (quanta…
We study the weak interaction processes taking place within a combustion flame that converts dense hadronic matter into quark matter in a compact star. Using the Boltzmann equation we follow the evolution of a small element of just deconfined quark matter all along the flame interior until it reaches chemical equilibrium at the back boundary of the flame. We obtain the reaction rates and neutrino emissivities of all the relevant weak interaction processes without making any assumption about the neutrino degeneracy. We analyse systematically the role the initial conditions of unburnt hadronic m…
Impact of positrons on electrical conductivity of hot and dense astrophysical plasma
Physics Institute, Yerevan State University（耶烈万国立大学物理研究所）；Byurakan Astrophysical Observatory（比尤拉坎天文台）；Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies（法兰克福高等研究院）；Institute of Theoretical Physics, University of Wrocław（弗罗茨瓦夫大学理论物理研究所）
We present constraints on an astrophysical population of neutrino sources imposed by recent data from the IceCube neutrino observatory. By using the IceCube point source search method to model the detection of sources, our detection criterion is more sensitive than using the observation of high-energy neutrino multiplets for source identification. We frame the problem as a Bayesian hierarchical model to connect the high-level population parameters to the IceCube data, allowing us to consistently account for all relevant sources of uncertainty in our model assumptions. Our results show that sou…
We explore the properties of nuclear pasta appearing in supernova matter, i.e., matter at finite temperature with a fixed proton fraction. The pasta phases with a series of geometric shapes are studied using the compressible liquid-drop (CLD) model, where nuclear matter separates into a dense liquid phase of nucleons and a dilute gas phase of nucleons and $α$ particles. The equilibrium conditions for two coexisting phases are derived by minimization of the total free energy including the surface and Coulomb contributions, which are clearly different from the Gibbs conditions for phase equilibr…
The general behavior of the nuclear equation of state (EOS), relevant for the description of neutron stars (NS), is studied within a Bayesian approach applied to a set of models based on a density dependent relativistic mean field description of nuclear matter. The EOS is subjected to a minimal number of constraints based on nuclear saturation properties and the low density pure neutron matter EOS obtained from a precise next-to-next-to-next-to-leading order (N$^{3}$LO) calculation in chiral effective field theory ($χ$EFT). The posterior distributions of the model parameters obtained under the…
We have shown the generation/amplification of fast macro-scale plasma flows in the degenerate two-fluid astrophysical systems with initial turbulent (micro--scale) magnetic/velocity fields due to the Unified Reverse Dynamo/Dynamo mechanism. This process is simultaneous with and complementary to the micro-scale unified dynamo. It is found that the generation of macro--scale flows is an essential consequence of the magneto-fluid coupling; the generation of macro--scale fast flows and magnetic fields are simultaneous, they grow proportionately. The resulting dynamical flow acceleration is directl…
The AMS-02 experiment has reported a new measurement of the antiproton/proton ratio in Galactic cosmic rays (CRs). In the energy range $E\sim\,$60-450 GeV, this ratio is found to be remarkably constant. Using recent data on CR proton, helium, and carbon fluxes, 10Be/9Be and B/C ratios, we have performed a global Bayesian analysis based on a Markov-Chain Monte-Carlo sampling algorithm under a "two halo model" of CR propagation. In this model, CRs are allowed to experience a different type of diffusion when they propagate in the region close of the Galactic disk. We found that the vertical exten…
We present ${\tt bajes}$, a parallel and lightweight framework for Bayesian inference of multimessenger transients. ${\tt bajes}$ is a Python modular package with minimal dependencies on external libraries adaptable to the majority of the Bayesian models and to various sampling methods. We describe the general workflow and the parameter estimation pipeline for compact-binary-coalescence gravitational-wave transients. The latter is validated against injections of binary black hole and binary neutron star waveforms, including confidence interval tests that demonstrates the inference is well-cali…
Determining the Equation of State (EOS) of dense neutron-rich nuclear matter is a shared goal of both nuclear physics and astrophysics. Except possible phase transitions, the density dependence of nuclear symmetry \esym is the most uncertain part of the EOS of neutron-rich nucleonic matter especially at supra-saturation densities. Much progresses have been made in recent years in predicting the symmetry energy and understanding why it is still very uncertain using various microscopic nuclear many-body theories and phenomenological models. Simultaneously, significant progresses have also been m…
In order to separate astrophysical gravitational-wave signals from instrumental noise, which often contains transient non-Gaussian artifacts, astronomers have traditionally relied on bootstrap methods such as time slides. Bootstrap methods sample with replacement, comparing single-observatory data to construct a background distribution, which is used to assign a false-alarm probability to candidate signals. While bootstrap methods have played an important role establishing the first gravitational-wave detections, there are limitations. First, as the number of detections increases, it makes inc…
Deeply inside dense molecular clouds and protostellar disks, the interstellar ices are protected from stellar energetic UV photons. However, X-rays and energetic cosmic rays can penetrate inside these regions triggering chemical reactions, molecular dissociation and evaporation processes. We present experimental studies on the interaction of heavy, highly charged and energetic ions (46 MeV Ni^13+) with ammonia-containing ices in an attempt to simulate the physical chemistry induced by heavy ion cosmic rays inside dense astrophysical environments. The measurements were performed inside a high v…
Using an explicitly isospin-dependent parametric Equation of State (EOS) for the core of neutron stars (NSs) within the Bayesian statistical approach, we infer the EOS parameters of super-dense neutron-rich nuclear matter from three sets of imagined mass-radius correlation data representing typical predictions by various nuclear many-body theories, i.e, the radius stays the same, decreases or increases with increasing NS mass within $\pm 15\%$ between 1.4 M$_{\odot}$ and 2.0 M$_{\odot}$. The corresponding average density increases quickly, slowly or slightly decreases as the NS mass increases …
In this undergraduate project, f-mode oscillations in neutron stars are used to constrain the equation of state of dense matter. For the first time, a systematic investigation of the role of nuclear saturation parameters on the mode oscillations is performed. It is found that the uncertainty in the determination of effective nucleon mass plays the most significant role in controlling the f-mode frequencies. Correlations of the frequencies with astrophysical observables relevant for asteroseismology are also investigated. Future detection of f-mode frequencies could then provide a unique way of…
Bayesian Inference of Dense-Matter Equations of State from Small-Radius Compact Stars with Twin-Star Scenarios
School of Physics, Nankai University（南开大学物理学院）；Shenzhen Research Institute of Nankai University（南开大学深圳研究院）；Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Tianjin University（天津大学理学院物理系）
本文通过贝叶斯方法研究致密物质方程 of state，探讨小半径致密星体是否能被双星情景所容纳，通过约束参数发现相变特征及对潮汐变形性的影响。
We apply Bayesian approach to construct a large number of minimally constrained equations of state (EOSs) and study their correlations with a few selected properties of a neutron star (NS). Our set of minimal constraints includes a few basic properties of saturated nuclear matter and low-density pure neutron matter EOS which is obtained from a precise next-to-next-to-next-to-leading-order (N$^{3}$LO) calculation in chiral effective field theory. The tidal deformability and radius of NS with mass $1-2 M_\odot$ are found to be strongly correlated with the pressure of $β$-equilibrated matter at d…
Over the past decades Bayesian methods have become increasingly popular in astronomy and physics as stochastic samplers have enabled efficient investigation of high-dimensional likelihood surfaces. In this work we develop a hierarchical Bayesian inference framework to detect the presence of dark matter annihilation events in data from the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA). Cosmic rays are weighted based on their measured sky position $\hatΩ_m$ and energy $E_m$ in order to derive a posterior distribution for the dark matter's velocity averaged cross section $\langleσv\rangle$. The dark matter sig…
Interpreting high-energy, astrophysical phenomena, such as supernova explosions or neutron-star collisions, requires a robust understanding of matter at supranuclear densities. However, our knowledge about dense matter explored in the cores of neutron stars remains limited. Fortunately, dense matter is not only probed in astrophysical observations, but also in terrestrial heavy-ion collision experiments. In this work, we use Bayesian inference to combine data from astrophysical multi-messenger observations of neutron stars and from heavy-ion collisions of gold nuclei at relativistic energies w…
Generation of TeV Photons by PeV Neutrinos in Dense Astrophysical Environments
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology（香港科技大学）；Jockey Club Institute for Advanced Study, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology（香港科技大学聚龙高等研究院）；School of Physics, Peking University（北京大学物理学院）；Center for Gravitational Wave Experiment, National Microgravity Laboratory, Institute of Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院力学研究所微重力国家实验室引力波实验中心）；Department of Physics, Chongqing University（重庆大学物理学院）；School of Physics, Zhengzhou University（郑州大学物理学院）
Constraining the equation of state of cold dense matter in compact stars is a major science goal for observing programmes being conducted using X-ray, radio, and gravitational wave telescopes. We discuss Bayesian hierarchical inference of parametrised dense matter equations of state. In particular we generalise and examine two inference paradigms from the literature: (i) direct posterior equation of state parameter estimation, conditioned on observations of a set of rotating compact stars; and (ii) indirect parameter estimation, via transformation of an intermediary joint posterior distributio…
The tidal deformability probability distribution extracted from GW170817 alone, or including multi-messenger information, is confronted to astrophysical and nuclear physics additional constraints within a semi-agnostic approach for the dense matter equation of state. We use Bayesian statistics to combine together low density nuclear physics data, such as the ab-initio predictions based on $χ$EFT interactions or the isoscalar giant monopole resonance, and astrophysical constraints from neutron stars, such as the maximum mass of neutron stars or the probability density function of the tidal defo…
We study the surface tension of hot, highly magnetized three flavor quark matter droplets, focusing specifically on the thermodynamic conditions prevailing in neutron stars, hot lepton rich protoneutron stars and neutron star mergers. We explore the role of temperature, baryon number density, trapped neutrinos, droplet size and magnetic fields within the multiple reflection expansion formalism (MRE), assuming that astrophysical quark matter can be described as a mixture of free Fermi gases composed by quarks $u$, $d$, $s$, electrons and neutrinos, in chemical equilibrium under weak interaction…
Evolutions of in-medium baryon-baryon scattering cross sections and stiffness of dense nuclear matter from Bayesian analyses of FOPI proton flow excitation functions
Observations of neutron stars (NSs) by the LIGO-Virgo and NICER collaborations have provided reasonably precise measurements of their various macroscopic properties. In this paper, we employ a Bayesian framework to combine them and place improved joint constraints on the properties of NS equation of state (EoS). We use a hybrid EoS formulation that employs a parabolic expansion-based nuclear empirical parameterization around the nuclear saturation density augmented by a generic 3-segment piecewise polytrope model at higher densities. Within the $90 \%$ credible level this parameterization pred…
Understanding the dense matter equation of state at extreme conditions is an important open problem. Astrophysical observations of neutron stars promise to solve this, with NICER poised to make precision measurements of mass and radius for several stars using the waveform modelling technique. What has been less clear, however, is how these mass-radius measurements might translate into equation of state constraints and what are the associated equation of state sensitivities. We use Bayesian inference to explore and contrast the constraints that would result from different choices for the equati…
[Purpose:] We infer the posterior probability distribution functions (PDFs) and correlations of nine parameters characterizing the EOS of dense neutron-rich matter encapsulating a first-order hadron-quark phase transition from the radius data of canonical NSs reported by LIGO/VIRGO, NICER and Chandra Collaborations. We also infer the quark matter (QM) mass fraction and its radius in a 1.4 M$_{\odot}$ NS and predict their values in more massive NSs. [Method:] Meta-modelings are used to generate both hadronic and QM EOSs in the Markov-Chain Monte Carlo sampling process within the Bayesian statis…
Neutron stars are the densest objects known in our visible universe. Properties of matter inside a neutron star are encoded in its equation of state, which has wide-ranging uncertainty from a theoretical perspective. With the current understanding of quantum chromodynamics, it is hard to determine the interactions of neutron star matter at such high densities. Also performing many body calculations is computationally intractable. Besides the constitution of the neutron star core is highly speculative -- it is not ruled out that it contains exotic matter like strange baryons, meson condensates,…
We present ${\tt nimbus}$ : a hierarchical Bayesian framework to infer the intrinsic luminosity parameters of kilonovae (KNe) associated with gravitational-wave (GW) events, based purely on non-detections. This framework makes use of GW 3-D distance information and electromagnetic upper limits from multiple surveys for multiple events, and self-consistently accounts for finite sky-coverage and probability of astrophysical origin. The framework is agnostic to the brightness evolution assumed and can account for multiple electromagnetic passbands simultaneously. Our analyses highlight the import…
Bayesian Analysis of the Neutron Star Equation of State and Model Comparison: Insights from PSR J0437+4715, PSR J0614+3329, and Other Multi-Physics Data
Universidad Andrés Bello（安德斯·贝略大学）；The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen (CUHKShenzhen)（香港中文大学（深圳））
本文通过贝叶斯分析，利用多物理数据约束中子星方程 of 状态参数，发现Skyrme模型在综合数据下表现最佳，确定了对称能量参数和中子星半径、潮汐变形性等关键结果。
Recently an improved value of neutron skin thickness of $^{208}\text{Pb}$ was reported in Lead Radius EXperiment-2 (PREX-2) to be $R_{\text{skin}}=R_n - R_p=(0.283\pm 0.071)$ fm which corresponds to high estimations of nuclear symmetry energy ($E_{\text{sym}}$) and its slope ($L_{\text{sym}}$). The updated values of $E_{\text{sym}}$ and $L_{\text{sym}}$ commensurating to the neutron star observable estimations lie exterior to the astrophysical observed range. The higher values of $L_{\text{sym}}$ at $n_0$ deduced from recent PREX-2 data correlates to matter being easily deformable (yielding hi…
The gravitational-wave candidate GW151216 is a proposed binary black hole event from the first observing run of the Advanced LIGO detectors. Not identified as a bona fide signal by the LIGO--Virgo collaboration, there is disagreement as to its authenticity, which is quantified by $p_\text{astro}$, the probability that the event is astrophysical in origin. Previous estimates of $p_\text{astro}$ from different groups range from 0.18 to 0.71, making it unclear whether this event should be included in population analyses, which typically require $p_\text{astro}>0.5$. Whether GW151216 is an astroph…
