Dense nuclear matter with phenomenological short distance repulsion

Abstract

The possibility of new short distance physics applicable inside the cores of neutron stars is incorporated into the equation of state generated by the quark-meson coupling model. The contribution of this new physics to the energy density is taken to be proportional to the amount of overlap between the quark cores of the baryons involved. With no change to the properties of symmetric nuclear matter at saturation density, including an incompressibility compatible with data on giant monopole resonances, one can sustain neutron stars with a maximum mass Mmax > 2.1M, even when hyperons are included.