The equation of state of dense matter can be constrained by observations of neutron stars, which range from pulsars to isolated stars to those accreting matter from binary companions. While some observations constrain the properties of matter in the uniform fluid at the nuclear saturation density and above, others relate to properties of matter in the nuclear crust at subnuclear densities. A wide range of nuclear interactions have been proposed for the bulk properties of dense matter, but there are only a handful of detailed calculations that extend to the matter at subnuclear densities, in which nuclei are surrounded by a nucleon gas. In addition, modeling of supernovae, proto-neutron stars and merging neutron stars requires extending these calculations to finite temperatures. This talk will explore the astrophysical constraints on bulk and crustal matter properties and will summarize past and current efforts to model the equation of state for astrophysical applications.

ANL Physics Division Colloquium Schedule