Inferring three-nucleon couplings from multi-messenger neutron-star observations
Understanding the interactions between nucleons in dense matter is an important challenge in theoretical physics. Effective field theories have emerged as the dominant approach to address this problem at low energies, with many successful applications to the structure of nuclei and the properties of dense nucleonic matter. However, how far into the interior of neutron stars these interactions can describe dense matter is an open question. Here, we develop a framework that enables the inference of three-nucleon couplings in dense matter directly from astrophysical neutron star observations. We apply this formalism to the LIGO/Virgo gravitational-wave event GW170817 and the X-ray measurements from NASA's Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer and establish direct constraints for the couplings that govern three-nucleon interactions in chiral effective field theory. Furthermore, we demonstrate how next-generation observations of a population of neutron star mergers can offer stringent constraints on three-nucleon couplings, potentially at a level comparable to those from laboratory data. Our work directly connects the microscopic couplings in quantum field theories to macroscopic observations of neutron stars, providing a way to test the consistency between low-energy couplings inferred from terrestrial and astrophysical data.
Authors
- Rahul Somasundaram (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0427-3893)
- Philippe Landry (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8457-1964)
- Ingo Tews (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2656-6355)
- A. Schwenk (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8027-4076)
- Isak Svensson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9211-5555)
- D. DeBra (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3316-5149)
- Andrew E. Deneris
- Yannick Dietz (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0004-8049-2005)
Institutions
- Los Alamos National Laboratory (US)
- GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research (DE)
- Perimeter Institute (CA)
- University of Toronto (CA)
- Technische Universität Darmstadt (DE)
- Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics (CA)
- Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics (DE)
- Syracuse University (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2025-11-06
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-64756-6
- Primary Topic
- Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- National Science Foundation
- U.S. Department of Energy
- University of Washington
- National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center
- Government of Canada
- European Commission
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
- Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung
- Technische Universität Darmstadt
- Institut Périmètre de physique théorique
- Ministry of Colleges and Universities
- Gauss Centre for Supercomputing
- Office of Science
- National Nuclear Security Administration
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
- Advanced Scientific Computing Research
- Nuclear Physics
- Workforce Development for Teachers and Scientists
- Los Alamos National Laboratory