Quarks and Compact Stars (QCS)
Oct. 20-22, 2014, KIAA at Peking University, Beijing - P. R. China


Invited Talk

Constraints on the nuclear saturation parameters via neutron star observations

Hajime Sotani

National Astronomical Observatory of Japan

Abstract: The inside neutron stars can become quite high density, which is partially almost impossible to realize on the Earth. So, neutron stars are suitable laboratory to examine the physics under the ultra-high density region. The observations of phenomena associated with neutron stars enable us to understand the nuclear matter properties and equation of state. On the other hand, one can obtain the nuclear information, especially around the saturation density, via the terrestrial nuclear experiments. The properties around the saturation density is strongly coupled with the phenomena in neutron star crust region and the stellar structure of low-mass neutron star itself. That is, the observations associated with the crust region and/or those of the stellar properties of low-mass neutron stars must tell us the nuclear properties around the saturation density. In this talk, we show the prospect to derive the nuclear properties from the astrophysical observational point of view. In particular, we focus on the nuclear symmetry energy, adopting the observations of quasi-periodic oscillations of giant flares in soft-gamma repeaters. In addition, we also discuss how to obtain the nuclear saturation parameters via the direct observations of low-mass neutron stars.