Unified equation of state for neutron stars on a microscopic basis

We derive a new equation of state (EoS) for neutron stars (NS) from the outer crust to the core based on modern microscopic Brueckner-Hartree-Fock (BHF) calculations using the Argonnev18 potential plus three-body forces computed with the Urbana model. To deal with the inhomogeneous structures of matter in the NS crust, we use the recent Barcelona-Catania-Paris-Madrid (BCPM) nuclear energy density functional that is directly based on the same microscopic BHF calculations, and which is able to reproduce the ground-state properties of nuclei along the periodic ta ble. The EoS of the outer crust requires the masses of neutron-rich nuclei, which are obtained through Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov calculations with the BCPM functional when they are unknown experimentally. To compute the inner crust, Thomas-Fermi calculations in Wigner-Seitz cells are performed with the same functional. Existence of nuclear pasta is predicted in a range of average baryon densities between≃0.067 fm −3 and≃0.0825 fm −3 , where the transition to the core takes place. The NS core is computed from the nuclear EoS of the BHF calculation assuming non-exotic constituents (core of npeµ matter). In each region of the star, we discuss the comparison of the new EoS with previous EoSes for the complete NS structure, in particular, with the Lattimer-Swesty EoS and with the Shen et al. EoS widely used in astrophysical calculations. The new microscopically derived EoS fulfills at the same time a NS max imum mass of 2 M⊙ with a radius of 10 km, and a 1.5 M⊙ NS with a radius of 11.7 km.