Doctoral Dissertations

Date of Award

8-2020

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Major

Physics

Major Professor

Andrew Steiner

Committee Members

Tony Mezzacappa, Thomas Papenbrock, Roy Sharani

Abstract

The detection of gravitational wave during the neutron star merger event GW170817 greatly enhanced our ability to probe the interiors of neutron stars. Future measurements of similar events will put further constraints to the equation of state (EOS) of nuclear matter. Also, uncertainties in the EOS create variations in the results of astrophysical simulations of core-collapse supernovae and neutron star mergers. In order to quantify the uncertainties, we construct a probability distribution of equations of state (EOSs). We create a new EOS which respects experimental, observational and theoretical constraints on the nature of matter in various density and temperature regimes. Our equation of state matches (i) the virial coefficients expected from nucleon-nucleon scattering phase shifts, (ii) experimental measurements of nuclear masses and charge radii, (iii) observations of neutron star radii, (iv) theory results on the equation of state of neutron matter near the saturation density, and (v) theory results on the evolution of the EOS at finite temperatures near the saturation density. In the sub-nuclear inhomogeneous phase, we add selected light nuclei including deuteron, trition 3He, 4He, 4Li and a full ensemble of heavy nuclei in nuclear statistical equilibrium using an excluded volume approach. We present our results in typical conditions that is found for early stages of core-collapse supernova and neutron star mergers.

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