Abstract
Much effort is devoted to measuring the nuclear symmetry energy through neutron star (NS) and nuclear observables. Since matter in the NS core may be nonhadronic, observables like radii and tidal deformability may not provide reliable constraints on properties of nucleonic matter. By performing the first consistent inference using ensembles of core and crust equations of state from astrophysical and nuclear data, we demonstrate that coincident timing of a resonant shattering flare (RSF) and gravitational wave signal during binary NS inspiral probes the crust-core transition region and provides constraints on the symmetry energy comparable to terrestrial nuclear experiments. We show that nuclear masses, RSFs, and measurements of NS radii and tidal deformabilities constrain different density ranges of the equation of state, providing complementary probes.
- Received 28 July 2022
- Revised 3 October 2022
- Accepted 27 January 2023
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.130.112701
Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.
Published by the American Physical Society