An Analytical Toy Equation of State for Neutron Stars Consistent with Current Observations
Abstract
Fast analytic and semi-analytic studies of neutron stars often require an equation of state that is convenient to evaluate while producing relativistic stellar sequences compatible with current multimessenger constraints. We construct such a benchmark by scanning a smooth double polytropic relation for the energy density as a function of pressure, . The parameters are selected with filters based on massive pulsars, tidal deformability from the binary-neutron-star event GW170817, and NICER mass-radius measurements. A single polytropic baseline scan finds no model passing all filters, whereas a double-polytrope scan identifies a viable region. A curve-integral score, evaluated against public NICER and GW170817 posterior data sets, is then used to choose benchmark equations of state within this region. The selected representatives support --, with km and --, and remain causal on the stable branch. This compact analytic family provides reference cases for relativistic stellar-structure tests at current observational scales.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2607.00070,
title = {An Analytical Toy Equation of State for Neutron Stars Consistent with Current Observations},
author = {Tian-Shun Chen and Xiao-Ding Zhou and Kilar Zhang},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2607.00070},
year = {2026}
}
Comments
11 pages, 8 figures, 8 tables