Neutron stars in $f(T)$ gravity with realistic models of matter


Abstract in English

We investigate the nonrotating neutron stars in $f(T)$ gravity with $f(T)=T+alpha T^2$, where $T$ is the torsion scalar in the teleparallel formalism of gravity. In particular, we utilize the SLy and BSk family of equations of state for perfect fluid to describe the neutron stellar matter and search for the effects of the $f(T)$ modification on the models of neutron stars. For positive $alpha$, the modification results in a stronger gravitation exerted on the stellar matter, leading to a smaller stellar mass in comparison to general relativity. Moreover, there seems to be an upper limit for the central density of the neutron stars with $alpha>0$, beyond which the effective $f(T)$ fluid would have a steplike phase transition in density and pressure profiles, collapsing the numerical system. For negative $alpha$, the $f(T)$ modification provides additional support for neutron stars to contain larger amount of matter. We obtain the mass-radius relations of the realistic models of neutron stars and subject them to the joint constraints from the observed massive pulsars PSR J0030+0451, PSR J0740+6620, and PSR J2215+5135, and gravitational wave events GW170817 and GW190814. For BSk19 equation of state, the neutron star model in $f(T)$ gravity can accommodate all the mentioned data when $alphale 3.5 G^2M_odot^2/c^4$. For BSk20, BSk21 and SLy equations of state, the observational data constrain the model parameter $alpha$ to be negative. If one considers the unknown compact object in the event GW190814 not to be a neutron star and hence excludes this dataset, the constraints for BSk20 and BSk21 models can be loosened to $alphale 0.4 G^2M_odot^2/c^4$ and $alphale 1.9 G^2M_odot^2/c^4$, respectively.

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