Eur. Phys. J. A (2014) 50: 10
https://doi.org/10.1140/epja/i2014-14010-5

Review

The equation of state of neutron matter, symmetry energy and neutron star structure

¹ Theoretical Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, 87545, Los Alamos, NM, USA
² Institute for Nuclear Theory, University of Washington, 98195, Seattle, WA, USA
³ Physics Division, Argonne National Laboratory, 60439, Argonne, IL, USA

^* e-mail: stefano@lanl.gov

Received: 19 July 2013
Revised: 29 August 2013
Accepted: 4 September 2013
Published online: 25 February 2014

Abstract

We review the calculation of the equation of state of pure neutron matter using quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) methods. QMC algorithms permit the study of many-body nuclear systems using realistic two- and three-body forces in a non-perturbative framework. We present the results for the equation of state of neutron matter, and focus on the role of three-neutron forces at supranuclear density. We discuss the correlation between the symmetry energy, the neutron star radius and the symmetry energy. We also combine QMC and theoretical models of the three-nucleon interactions, and recent neutron star observations to constrain the value of the symmetry energy and its density dependence.