Finite-temperature ab-initio-Informed Nuclear Equation-of-State Tables (FINEST): Nuclear matter uncertainties in core-collapse supernovae
Abstract
We construct new finite-temperature, composition-dependent equation of state (EOS) tables for astrophysical simulations by implementing a recently developed energy-density functional. The functional is constrained by ab initio nuclear matter calculations and neutron-star observations. A distinguishing feature of this functional is a non-monotonic density dependence of the nucleon effective mass, with an increase beyond saturation density. Using these EOS tables, we investigate the impact of current uncertainties in nuclear matter properties on core-collapse supernova (CCSN) evolution with spherically symmetric simulations employing an effective treatment of convective mixing. The magnitude of the EOS effects depends on the progenitor compactness. Within current constraints, variations in incompressibility, symmetry energy, and high-density pressure produce only modest differences during the early post-bounce evolution. In contrast, the effective mass dependence has a much stronger influence on proto-neutron star contraction and the explosion dynamics in a stellar model with high core compactness. Its non-monotonic density dependence leads to a qualitatively different contraction history and can alter the explosion outcome compared to mean-field effective-mass behaviors. Therefore, among the nuclear matter properties considered, the density dependence of the nucleon effective masses has by far the largest impact on CCSN dynamics. This highlights the importance of realistic effective-mass parameterizations in nuclear EOSs used in astrophysical simulations.
Related
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BibTeX
@misc{jost2026finitetemperature,
title = {{Finite-temperature ab-initio-Informed Nuclear Equation-of-State Tables (FINEST): Nuclear matter uncertainties in core-collapse supernovae}},
author = {Finia P. Jost and André da Silva Schneider and Almudena Arcones and Achim Schwenk and Evan O'Connor and Gerard Navó and Yeunhwan Lim},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.33879},
eprint = {2610.33879},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.33879},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Finite-temperature ab-initio-Informed Nuclear Equation-of-State Tables (FINEST): Nuclear matter uncertainties in core-collapse supernovae
AU - Finia P. Jost
AU - André da Silva Schneider
AU - Almudena Arcones
AU - Achim Schwenk
AU - Evan O'Connor
AU - Gerard Navó
AU - Yeunhwan Lim
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/24
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.33879
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.33879
AB - We construct new finite-temperature, composition-dependent equation of state (EOS) tables for astrophysical simulations by implementing a recently developed energy-density functional. The functional is constrained by ab initio nuclear matter calculations and neutron-star observations. A distinguishing feature of this functional is a non-monotonic density dependence of the nucleon effective mass, with an increase beyond saturation density. Using these EOS tables, we investigate the impact of current uncertainties in nuclear matter properties on core-collapse supernova (CCSN) evolution with spherically symmetric simulations employing an effective treatment of convective mixing. The magnitude of the EOS effects depends on the progenitor compactness. Within current constraints, variations in incompressibility, symmetry energy, and high-density pressure produce only modest differences during the early post-bounce evolution. In contrast, the effective mass dependence has a much stronger influence on proto-neutron star contraction and the explosion dynamics in a stellar model with high core compactness. Its non-monotonic density dependence leads to a qualitatively different contraction history and can alter the explosion outcome compared to mean-field effective-mass behaviors. Therefore, among the nuclear matter properties considered, the density dependence of the nucleon effective masses has by far the largest impact on CCSN dynamics. This highlights the importance of realistic effective-mass parameterizations in nuclear EOSs used in astrophysical simulations.
ER -