Ultimate Energy Density of Observable Cold Baryonic Matter
Physical Review Letters, 94 (11):
111101+ (March 2005)DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.94.111101
Abstract
We demonstrate that the largest measured mass of a neutron star establishes an upper bound to the energy density of observable cold baryonic matter. An equation of state-independent expression satisfied by both normal neutron stars and self-bound quark matter stars is derived for the largest energy density of matter inside stars as a function of their masses. The largest observed mass sets the lowest upper limit to the density. Implications from existing and future neutron star mass measurements are discussed.