Finite temperature neutron star matter

The equation of state obeyed by matter between nuclear and nucleonic densities, for temperatures up to 100 MeV, has observational consequences for the evolution and morphology of neutron stars, such as the pulsar central to the Crab Nebula. This work investigates that equation of state in the fully relativistic, non-perturbative, background field formulation. The spectrum of fields considered includes the baryon octet, flavor nonets of vector, scalar, and pseudoscalar mesons, as well as the electromagnetic field and the leptonic electron and muon. The strong interactions among these fields are taken to be SU(3) symmetric, and the coupling constants have been chosen to fit the density, binding energy, and compressibility of infinite nuclear matter. The description has been extended to include gluons and constituent quarks. The resulting equation of state displays three prominent features. First, the adiabatic index above nuclear density is sufficient to encourage the formation of supernova shock waves. Second, the color degrees of freedom dominate the composition and thermal properties of the matter for moderate temperatures. Third, the experimental uncertainty in the compressibility of infinite nuclear matter implies, through the equation of state, a range of neutron star configurations. The observational limits on these configurations could, with only small improvements, eliminate some of that uncertainty