Finite-Temperature Nuclear EOS

Most equations of state describe cold neutron stars, but newborn neutron stars and the remnants of neutron-star mergers are extremely hot. We extended a microscopic nuclear model to finite temperature, describing the hot crust and the core within a single, consistent framework. Heat reshapes the star: the crust shrinks and, above about 7 MeV, nuclear clusters dissolve entirely into uniform matter. Hot stars also become noticeably larger, and treating the crust consistently turns out to be essential to capture this. The resulting equation-of-state tables are available for simulations of hot compact objects.