English

Exploring Hyperon Skyrme Forces in Multi-$\Lambda$ Hypernuclei and Neutron Star Matter

Nuclear Theory 2026-04-28 v1 High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

Abstract

A major source of uncertainty in modeling the strangeness-rich interiors of neutron stars arises from the poorly constrained two-body and three-body interactions among hyperons and nucleons. We perform a comprehensive Bayesian analysis of the ΛΛ\Lambda\Lambda and ΛΛN\Lambda\Lambda N interaction parameters within the Skyrme Hartree-Fock framework, constrained by both hypernuclei experimental data and astrophysical observations. Our results show that the parameter space of the ΛΛ\Lambda\Lambda interaction is tightly constrained by combining nuclear and astrophysical data, while the parameters of the ΛΛN\Lambda\Lambda N three-body interaction remain sensitive to astrophysical inputs alone. Specifically, the local, momentum-independent two-body interaction parameter λ0\lambda_0 is tightly constrained and predominantly attractive, while the momentum-dependent parameters λ1\lambda_1 and λ2\lambda_2 contribute repulsive effects at high densities. A key role is played by the ΛΛ\Lambda\Lambda potential depth in pure Λ\Lambda matter, which effectively constrains the two-body ΛΛ\Lambda\Lambda interaction and governs the balance between attraction at low densities and repulsion at high densities. The repulsive components of ΛΛ\Lambda\Lambda interactions then decrease hyperon fractions and reconcile hyperon-rich equations of state with the observed 2M\sim2\,M_{\odot} neutron stars, increasing the maximum mass by up to 22\%. The inclusion of ΛΛN\Lambda\Lambda N three-body forces further stiffens the EOS, raising the maximum mass by up to 0.1M\sim 0.1\,M_{\odot}. Our study represents a promising step toward a complete, experimentally grounded description of dense matter across a wide range of densities and strangeness compositions.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2602.03388,
  title  = {Exploring Hyperon Skyrme Forces in Multi-$\Lambda$ Hypernuclei and Neutron Star Matter},
  author = {X. D. Sun and S. C. Han and J. N. Hu and A. Li},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2602.03388},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

18 pages incuding APPENDIX, 9 figures, 7 tables; accepted for publication in MNRAS (2026)

R2 v1 2026-07-01T09:33:56.229Z