Reuse & Permissions

It is not necessary to obtain permission to reuse this article or its components as it is available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI are maintained. Please note that some figures may have been included with permission from other third parties. It is your responsibility to obtain the proper permission from the rights holder directly for these figures.

Export citation

Export citation

Choose format for download:

Download Citation
  • Open Access

Effects of a Brueckner-Hartree-Fock–corrected effective mass on speed of sound, conformality, and observables of dark matter–admixed neutron stars

Arijit Das1,*, Prashanth Jaikumar2,†, Adarsh Karekkat1,3,‡, and Tanumoy Mandal1,§

  • *Contact author: arijit21@iisertvm.ac.in
  • †Contact author: prashanth.jaikumar@csulb.edu
  • ‡Contact author: adarsh.karekkat@unicaen.fr
  • §Contact author: tanumoy@iisertvm.ac.in

Phys. Rev. C 112, 055803 – Published 20 November, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/9qlh-w64b

Abstract

We construct an equation of state describing cold and dense matter in the core of neutron stars which includes an admixture of fermionic dark matter and incorporates nucleon effective masses derived from the relativistic Brueckner-Hartree-Fock (BHF) many-body approach within a relativistic mean-field model. Such a BHF-informed mixed-model approach increases stellar compactness, with mass-radius configurations that are consistent with smaller, lighter pulsars. The model displays the expected nonmonotonic behavior of sound speed hinted at by neutron-star data and is closer to the conformal bound at maximum mass. We find that the model displays tension with bounds on heavier pulsars, suggesting that the hypothesis of an aggregated dark component in neutron stars needs further critical study.

View figure in article

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Article Text

References (105)

  1. R. Somasundaram, I. Tews, and J. Margueron, Perturbative QCD and the neutron star equation of state, Phys. Rev. C 107, L052801 (2023).
  2. O. Philipsen, The QCD equation of state from the lattice, Prog. Part. Nucl. Phys. 70, 55 (2013).
  3. C. Drischler, J. W. Holt, and C. Wellenhofer, Chiral effective field theory and the high-density nuclear equation of state, Annu. Rev. Nucl. Part. Sci. 71, 403 (2021).
  4. F. Özel, D. Psaltis, T. Güver, G. Baym, C. Heinke, and S. Guillot, The dense matter equation of state from neutron star radius and mass measurements, Astrophys. J. 820, 28 (2016).
  5. V. Doroshenko, V. Suleimanov, G. Pühlhofer, and A. Santangelo, A strangely light neutron star within a supernova remnant, Nat. Astron. 6, 1444 (2022).
  6. E. Vurgun, M. Linares, S. Ransom, A. Papitto, S. Bogdanov, E. Bozzo, N. Rea, D. Garcia-Senz, P. Freire, and I. Stairs, The neutron star population in M28: A joint Chandra/GBT look at pulsar paradise, Astrophys. J. 941, 76 (2022).
  7. J.-L. Jiang, S.-P. Tang, Y.-Z. Wang, Y.-Z. Fan, and D.-M. Wei, PSR J0030+0451, GW170817 and the nuclear data: Joint constraints on equation of state and bulk properties of neutron stars, Astrophys. J. 892, 55 (2020).
  8. T. E. Riley, A. L. Watts, S. Bogdanov, P. S. Ray, R. M. Ludlam, S. Guillot, Z. Arzoumanian, C. L. Baker, A. V. Bilous, D. Chakrabarty, K. C. Gendreau, A. K. Harding, W. C. G. Ho, J. M. Lattimer, S. M. Morsink, and T. E. Strohmayer, A NICER view of PSR J0030+0451: Millisecond pulsar parameter estimation, Astrophys. J. Lett. 887, L21 (2019).
  9. M. C. Miller, F. K. Lamb, A. J. Dittmann, S. Bogdanov, Z. Arzoumanian, K. C. Gendreau, S. Guillot, A. K. Harding, W. C. G. Ho, J. M. Lattimer, R. M. Ludlam, S. Mahmoodifar, S. M. Morsink, P. S. Ray, T. E. Strohmayer, K. S. Wood, T. Enoto, R. Foster, T. Okajima, G. Prigozhin et al., PSR J0030+0451 Mass and radius from NICER data and implications for the properties of neutron star matter, Astrophys. J. Lett. 887, L24 (2019).
  10. J. Antoniadis, P. C. C. Freire, N. Wex, T. M. Tauris, R. S. Lynch, M. H. van Kerkwijk, M. Kramer, C. Bassa, V. S. Dhillon, T. Driebe, J. W. T. Hessels, V. M. Kaspi, V. I. Kondratiev, N. Langer, T. R. Marsh, M. A. McLaughlin, T. T. Pennucci, S. M. Ransom, I. H. Stairs, J. van Leeuwen et al., A massive pulsar in a compact relativistic binary, Science 340, 1233232 (2013).
  11. J.-L. Huo and X.-F. Zhao, The moment of inertia of the proto neutron star PSR J0348+0432 under neutrino trapped, Chin. J. Phys. 56, 292 (2018).
  12. X.-F. Zhao, On the moment of inertia of PSR J0348+0432, Chin. J. Phys. 54, 839 (2016).
  13. E. Fonseca, H. T. Cromartie, T. T. Pennucci, P. S. Ray, A. Yu. Kirichenko, S. M. Ransom, P. B. Demorest, I. H. Stairs, Z. Arzoumanian, L. Guillemot, A. Parthasarathy, M. Kerr, I. Cognard, P. T. Baker, H. Blumer, P. R. Brook, M. DeCesar, T. Dolch, F. A. Dong, E. C. Ferrara et al., Refined mass and geometric measurements of the high-mass PSR J0740+6620, Astrophys. J. Lett. 915, L12 (2021).
  14. T. E. Riley, A. L. Watts, P. S. Ray, S. Bogdanov, S. Guillot, S. M. Morsink, A. V. Bilous, Z. Arzoumanian, D. Choudhury, J. S. Deneva, K. C. Gendreau, A. K. Harding, W. C. G. Ho, J. M. Lattimer, M. Loewenstein, R. M. Ludlam, C. B. Markwardt, T. Okajima, C. Prescod-Weinstein, R. A. Remillard et al., A NICER view of the massive pulsar PSR J0740+6620 informed by radio timing and XMM-Newton spectroscopy, Astrophys. J. Lett. 918, L27 (2021).
  15. Y. Li, J. Wang, Z. Wu, and D. Wen, Inferring the gravitational binding energy and moment of inertia of PSR J0030 + 0451 and PSR J0740 + 6620 from new universal relations, Class. Quantum Grav. 39, 035014 (2022).
  16. P. Demorest, T. Pennucci, S. M. Ransom, M. S. E. Roberts, and J. W. T. Hessels, Shapiro delay measurement of a two solar mass neutron star, Nature (London) 467, 1081 (2010).
  17. A. Majid and M. Sharif, Quark stars in massive Brans–Dicke gravity with Tolman–Kuchowicz spacetime, Universe 6, 124 (2020).
  18. D. Choudhury, T. Salmi, S. Vinciguerra, T. E. Riley, Y. Kini, A. L. Watts, B. Dorsman, S. Bogdanov, S. Guillot, P. S. Ray, D. J. Reardon, R. A. Remillard, A. V. Bilous, D. Huppenkothen, J. M. Lattimer, N. Rutherford, Z. Arzoumanian, K. C. Gendreau, S. M. Morsink, and W. C. G. Ho, A NICER view of the nearest and brightest millisecond pulsar: PSR J0437–4715, Astrophys. J. Lett. 971, L20 (2024).
  19. L. Qi, S. Zheng, J. Zhang, M. Ge, Ang Li, S.-N. Zhang, F. Lu, H. Peng, Liang Zhang, H. Feng, Z. Zhang, Y. Xu, Z. Li, L. Song, S. Zhang, L. Tao, and W. Ye, PSR J1231-1411 revisited: Pulse profile analysis of x-ray observation, ApJ 981, 99 (2025).
  20. A. G. Lynn, A review of the double pulsar - PSR J0737-3039, Chin. J. Astron. Astrophys. 6, 162 (2006).
  21. Y.-Y. Yang, L. Chen, R.-F. Linghu, L.-Y. Zhang, and A. Taani, Constraints on estimation of radius of double pulsar PSR J0737-3039A and its neutron star nuclear matter composition, Chin. Phys. Lett. 34, 129701 (2017).
  22. P. Landry and B. Kumar, Constraints on the moment of inertia of PSR J0737-3039A from GW170817, Astrophys. J. Lett. 868, L22 (2018).
  23. B. P. Abbott et al. (LIGO Scientific, Virgo), GW170817: Observation of gravitational waves from a binary neutron star inspiral, Phys. Rev. Lett. 119, 161101 (2017).
  24. B. P. Abbott et al. (LIGO Scientific, Virgo), GW170817: Measurements of neutron star radii and equation of state, Phys. Rev. Lett. 121, 161101 (2018).
  25. B. P. Abbott et al. (LIGO Scientific, Virgo), GW190425: Observation of a compact binary coalescence with total mass ∼3.4M⊙, Astrophys. J. Lett. 892, L3 (2020).
  26. M.-Z. Han, S.-P. Tang, Y.-M. Hu, Y.-J. Li, J.-L. Jiang, Z.-P. Jin, Y.-Z. Fan, and D.-M. Wei, Is GW190425 consistent with being a neutron star-black hole merger? Astrophys. J. Lett. 891, L5 (2020).
  27. F. Hofmann, C. M. Keil, and H. Lenske, Application of the density dependent Hadron field theory to neutron star matter, Phys. Rev. C 64, 025804 (2001).
  28. B. Y. Sun, W. H. Long, J. Meng, and U. Lombardo, Neutron star properties in density-dependent relativistic Hartree-Fock theory, Phys. Rev. C 78, 065805 (2008).
  29. K. Huang, H. Shen, J. Hu, and Y. Zhang, Density-dependent quark mean-field model for nuclear matter and neutron stars, Phys. Rev. C 109, 045804 (2024).
  30. B.-A. Li, B.-J. Cai, L.-W. Chen, and J. Xu, Nucleon effective masses in neutron-rich matter, Prog. Part. Nucl. Phys. 99, 29 (2018).
  31. T. Kojo, QCD equations of state and speed of sound in neutron stars, AAPPS Bull. 31, 11 (2021).
  32. S. Li, J. Pang, H. Shen, J. Hu, and K. Sumiyoshi, Influence of effective nucleon mass on equation of state for supernova simulations and neutron stars, Astrophys. J. 980, 54 (2025).
  33. A. Y. Potekhin and G. Chabrier, Magnetic neutron star cooling and microphysics, Astron. Astrophys. 609, A74 (2018).
  34. A. Y. Potekhin, A. I. Chugunov, and G. Chabrier, Thermal evolution and quiescent emission of transiently accreting neutron stars, Astron. Astrophys. 629, A88 (2019).
  35. M. Baldo, G. F. Burgio, H.-J. Schulze, and G. Taranto, Nucleon effective masses within the Brückner-Hartree-Fock theory: Impact on stellar neutrino emission, Phys. Rev. C 89, 048801 (2014).
  36. A. Dehghan Niri, H. R. Moshfegh, and P. Haensel, Nuclear correlations and neutrino emissivity from the neutron branch of the modified Urca process, Phys. Rev. C 93, 045806 (2016).
  37. P. S. Shternin, M. Baldo, and P. Haensel, In-medium enhancement of the modified Urca neutrino reaction rates, Phys. Lett. B 786, 28 (2018).
  38. F. Sammarruca, Temperature-dependence of single-particle properties in isospin-symmetric and asymmetric matter within the Dirac-Brückner-Hartree-Fock model, J. Phys. G 37, 085105 (2010).
  39. W. Zuo, A. Lejeune, U. Lombardo, and J. F. Mathiot, Interplay of three-body interactions in the EOS of nuclear matter, Nucl. Phys. A 706, 418 (2002).
  40. W. Zuo, A. Lejeune, U. Lombardo, and J. F. Mathiot, Microscopic three-body force for asymmetric nuclear matter, Eur. Phys. J. A 14, 469 (2002).
  41. A. W. Steiner and S. Gandolfi, Connecting neutron star observations to three-body forces in neutron matter and to the nuclear symmetry energy, Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 081102 (2012).
  42. S. Gandolfi, J. Carlson, S. Reddy, A. W. Steiner, and R. B. Wiringa, The equation of state of neutron matter, symmetry energy, and neutron star structure, Eur. Phys. J. A 50, 10 (2014).
  43. Y. Yamamoto, H. Togashi, T. Tamagawa, T. Furumoto, N. Yasutake, and Th. A. Rijken, Neutron-star radii based on realistic nuclear interactions, Phys. Rev. C 96, 065804 (2017).
  44. B. T. Reed, M. Heinz, P. Arthuis, A. Schwenk, and I. Tews, Connecting relativistic density functional theory to microscopic calculations, Phys. Rev. C 112, 034331 (2025).
  45. I. Tews, J. Carlson, S. Gandolfi, and S. Reddy, Constraining the speed of sound inside neutron stars with chiral effective field theory interactions and observations, Astrophys. J. 860, 149 (2018).
  46. A. Cherman, T. D. Cohen, and A. Nellore, A bound on the speed of sound from holography, Phys. Rev. D 80, 066003 (2009).
  47. C. Ecker, C. Hoyos, N. Jokela, D. Rodríguez Fernández, and A. Vuorinen, Stiff phases in strongly coupled gauge theories with holographic duals, J. High Energy Phys. 11 (2017) 031.
  48. S. Altiparmak, C. Ecker, and L. Rezzolla, On the sound speed in neutron stars, Astrophys. J. Lett. 939, L34 (2022).
  49. L. Brandes, W. Weise, and N. Kaiser, Inference of the sound speed and related properties of neutron stars, Phys. Rev. D 107, 014011 (2023).
  50. S. Roy and T. Suyama, On the sound velocity bound in neutron stars, Results Phys. 61, 107757 (2024).
  51. P. Bedaque and A. W. Steiner, Sound velocity bound and neutron stars, Phys. Rev. Lett. 114, 031103 (2015).
  52. L. McLerran and S. Reddy, Quarkyonic matter and neutron stars, Phys. Rev. Lett. 122, 122701 (2019).
  53. M. Leonhardt, M. Pospiech, B. Schallmo, J. Braun, C. Drischler, K. Hebeler, and A. Schwenk, Symmetric nuclear matter from the strong interaction, Phys. Rev. Lett. 125, 142502 (2020).
  54. N. Kovensky, A. Poole, and A. Schmitt, Building a realistic neutron star from holography, Phys. Rev. D 105, 034022 (2022).
  55. Ch. C. Moustakidis, T. Gaitanos, Ch. Margaritis, and G. A. Lalazissis, Bounds on the speed of sound in dense matter, and neutron star structure, Phys. Rev. C 95, 045801 (2017); 95, 059904(E) (2017).
  56. C. Margaritis, P. K. Koutmiridis, and C. Moustakidis, Speed of sound constraints on maximally-rotating neutron stars, Phys. Rev. C 27, 155 (2020).
  57. T. S. Olson, Maximally incompressible neutron star matter, Phys. Rev. C 63, 015802 (2000).
  58. E. Annala, T. Gorda, A. Kurkela, J. Nättilä, and A. Vuorinen, Evidence for quark-matter cores in massive neutron stars, Nat. Phys. 16, 907 (2020).
  59. E. Annala, T. Gorda, J. Hirvonen, O. Komoltsev, A. Kurkela, J. Nättilä, and A. Vuorinen, Strongly interacting matter exhibits deconfined behavior in massive neutron stars, Nat. Commun. 14, 8451 (2023).
  60. Y. Fujimoto, K. Fukushima, L. D. McLerran, and M. Praszalowicz, Trace anomaly as signature of conformality in neutron stars, Phys. Rev. Lett. 129, 252702 (2022).
  61. Michał Marczenko, K. Redlich, and C. Sasaki, Curvature of the energy per particle in neutron stars, Phys. Rev. D 109, L041302 (2024).
  62. D. Scordino and I. Bombaci, Dark matter admixed neutron stars with a realistic nuclear equation of state from chiral nuclear interactions, JHEAp 45, 371 (2025).
  63. P. K. Sahu, R. Basu, and B. Datta, High density matter in the chiral sigma model, Astrophys. J. 416, 267 (1993).
  64. P. K. Sahu and A. Ohnishi, SU(2) chiral sigma model and the properties of neutron stars, Prog. Theor. Phys. 104, 1163 (2000).
  65. J. D. Walecka, A theory of highly condensed matter, Ann. Phys. (NY) 83, 491 (1974).
  66. A. Guha and D. Sen, Feeble DM-SM interaction via new scalar and vector mediators in rotating neutron stars, J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 09 (2021) 027.
  67. N. K. Glendenning, Compact Stars: Nuclear Physics, Particle Physics, and General Relativity (Springer, New York, NY, 1997).
  68. T. K. Jha and H. Mishra, Constraints on nuclear matter parameters of an effective chiral model, Phys. Rev. C 78, 065802 (2008).
  69. M. Dutra, O. Lourenço, S. S. Avancini, B. V. Carlson, A. Delfino, D. P. Menezes, C. Providência, S. Typel, and J. R. Stone, Relativistic mean-field hadronic models under nuclear matter constraints, Phys. Rev. C 90, 055203 (2014).
  70. S. Tulin, H.-B. Yu, and K. M. Zurek, Beyond collisionless dark matter: Particle physics dynamics for dark matter halo structure, Phys. Rev. D 87, 115007 (2013).
  71. S. W. Randall, M. Markevitch, D. Clowe, A. H. Gonzalez, and M. Bradac, Constraints on the self-interaction cross-section of dark matter from numerical simulations of the merging galaxy cluster 1E 0657-56, Astrophys. J. 679, 1173 (2008).
  72. D. Sen and A. Guha, Implications of feebly interacting dark sector on neutron star properties and constraints from GW170817, Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 504, 3354 (2021).
  73. X. L. Shang, A. Li, Z. Q. Miao, G. F. Burgio, and H. J. Schulze, Nucleon effective mass in hot dense matter, Phys. Rev. C 101, 065801 (2020).
  74. A. G. Abac, C. C. Bernido, and Jose Perico H. Esguerra, Stability of neutron stars with dark matter core using three crustal types and the impact on mass–radius relations, Phys. Dark Universe 40, 101185 (2023).
  75. E. Annala, T. Gorda, A. Kurkela, and A. Vuorinen, Gravitational-wave constraints on the neutron-star-matter equation of state, Phys. Rev. Lett. 120, 172703 (2018).
  76. C.-J. Xia, T. Maruyama, A. Li, B. Y. Sun, W.-H. Long, and Y.-X. Zhang, Unified neutron star EOSs and neutron star structures in RMF models, Commun. Theor. Phys. 74, 095303 (2022).
  77. V. Sagun, E. Giangrandi, T. Dietrich, O. Ivanytskyi, R. Negreiros, and C. Providência, What is the nature of the HESS J1731-347 compact object? Astrophys. J. 958, 49 (2023).
  78. Q.-F. Xiang, W.-Z. Jiang, D.-R. Zhang, and R.-Y. Yang, Effects of fermionic dark matter on properties of neutron stars, Phys. Rev. C 89, 025803 (2014).
  79. H. C. Das, A. Kumar, B. Kumar, and S. K. Patra, Dark matter effects on the compact star properties, Galaxies (Basel) 10, 14 (2022).
  80. César H. Lenzi, M. Dutra, O. Lourenço, L. L. Lopes, and Débora P. Menezes, Dark matter effects on hybrid star properties, Eur. Phys. J. C 83, 266 (2023).
  81. Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams, IAUC 8144: XTE J1814-338; 2003ed, http://www.cbat.eps.harvard.edu/iauc/08100/08144.html#Item1.
  82. S. L. Pitz and J. Schaffner-Bielich, Generating ultracompact neutron stars with bosonic dark matter, Phys. Rev. D 111, 043050 (2025).
  83. L. L. Lopes and A. Issifu, XTE J1814-338 as a dark matter admixed neutron star, Phys. Dark Universe 48, 101922 (2025).
  84. S.-H. Yang, C.-M. Pi, and F. Weber, Strange stars admixed with mirror dark matter: Confronting observations of XTE J1814-338, Phys. Rev. D 111, 043037 (2025).
  85. P. Laskos-Patkos and Ch. C. Moustakidis, XTE J1814-338: A potential hybrid star candidate, Phys. Rev. D 111, 063058 (2025).
  86. S. Traversi, P. Char, G. Pagliara, and A. Drago, Speed of sound in dense matter and two families of compact stars, Astron. Astrophys. 660, A62 (2022).
  87. Z. Miao, A. Li, and Z.-G. Dai, On the moment of inertia of PSR J0737-3039 A from LIGO/Virgo and NICER, Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 515, 5071 (2022).
  88. S. Chatterjee, H. Sudhakaran, and R. Mallick, Analyzing the speed of sound in neutron star with machine learning, Eur. Phys. J. C 84, 1291 (2024).
  89. Michał Marczenko, Conformality thresholds in neutron stars, J. Subat. Part. Cosmol. 3, 100043 (2025).
  90. Michał Marczenko, L. McLerran, K. Redlich, and C. Sasaki, Reaching percolation and conformal limits in neutron stars, Phys. Rev. C 107, 025802 (2023).
  91. R. W. Romani, D. Kandel, A. V. Filippenko, T. G. Brink, and W. Zheng, PSR J0952−0607: The fastest and heaviest known galactic neutron star, Astrophys. J. Lett. 934, L17 (2022).
  92. T. Gorda, A. Kurkela, P. Romatschke, S. Säppi, and A. Vuorinen, Next-to-next-to-next-to-leading order pressure of cold quark matter: Leading logarithm, Phys. Rev. Lett. 121, 202701 (2018).
  93. T. Gorda, A. Kurkela, R. Paatelainen, S. Säppi, and A. Vuorinen, Soft interactions in cold quark matter, Phys. Rev. Lett. 127, 162003 (2021).
  94. O. Ivanytskyi and D. B. Blaschke, Recovering the conformal limit of color superconducting quark matter within a confining density functional approach, Particles 5, 514 (2022).
  95. R. Somasundaram, I. Tews, and Jérôme Margueron, Investigating signatures of phase transitions in neutron-star cores, Phys. Rev. C 107, 025801 (2023).
  96. T. Mandal, P. Jaikumar, and S. Digal, Chiral and diquark condensates at large magnetic field in two-flavor superconducting quark matter, arXiv:0912.1413.
  97. T. Mandal and P. Jaikumar, Neutrality of a magnetized two-flavor quark superconductor, Phys. Rev. C 87, 045208 (2013).
  98. T. Mandal and P. Jaikumar, Effect of temperature and magnetic field on two-flavor superconducting quark matter, Phys. Rev. D 94, 074016 (2016).
  99. T. Mandal and P. Jaikumar, Effect of strong magnetic field on competing order parameters in two-flavor dense quark matter, Adv. High Energy Phys. 2017, 1 (2017).
  100. P. Jaikumar, G. Rupak, and A. W. Steiner, Viscous damping of r-mode oscillations in compact stars with quark matter, Phys. Rev. D 78, 123007 (2008).
  101. P. Jaikumar, A. Semposki, M. Prakash, and C. Constantinou, g-mode oscillations in hybrid stars: A tale of two sounds, Phys. Rev. D 103, 123009 (2021).
  102. J. B. Hartle, Slowly rotating relativistic stars. I. Equations of structure, Astrophys. J. 150, 1005 (1967).
  103. T. Hinderer, Tidal love numbers of neutron stars, Astrophys. J. 677, 1216 (2008); 697, 964 (2009).
  104. T. Hinderer, B. D. Lackey, R. N. Lang, and J. S. Read, Tidal deformability of neutron stars with realistic equations of state and their gravitational wave signatures in binary inspiral, Phys. Rev. D 81, 123016 (2010).
  105. K.-L. Leung, M.-c. Chu, and L.-M. Lin, Tidal deformability of dark matter admixed neutron stars, Phys. Rev. D 105, 123010 (2022).

Outline

Information

Sign In to Your Journals Account

Filter

Filter

Article Lookup

Enter a citation