From asymmetric nuclear matter to neutron stars: A functional renormalization group study

A previous study of nuclear matter in a chiral nucleon-meson model is extended to isospin-asymmetric matter. Fluctuations beyond mean-field approximation are treated in the framework of the functional renormalization group. The nuclear liquid-gas phase transition is investigated in detail as a function of the proton fraction in asymmetric matter. The equations of state at zero temperature of both symmetric nuclear matter and pure neutron matter are found to be in good agreement with realistic many-body computations. We also study the density dependence of the pion mass in the medium. The question of chiral symmetry restoration in neutron matter is addressed; we find a stabilization of the phase with spontaneously broken chiral symmetry once fluctuations are included. Finally, neutron-star matter including β equilibrium is discussed. The model satisfies the constraints imposed by the existence of two-solar mass neutron stars.