Predicting the moment of inertia of pulsar J0737-3039A from Bayesian modeling of the nuclear equation of state

Yeunhwan Lim, Jeremy W. Holt, Robert J. Stahulak

Published 2018-10-25Version 1

We investigate neutron star moments of inertia from Bayesian posterior probability distributions of the nuclear equation of state that incorporate information from microscopic many-body theory and empirical data of finite nuclei. We focus on PSR J0737-3039A and predict that for this 1.338 M_sun neutron star the moment of inertia lies in the range $0.98 \times 10^{45}$ g cm$^{2} < I < 1.48 \times 10^{45}$ g cm$^{2}$ at the 95% credibility level, while the most probable value for the moment of inertia is $\tilde I = 1.35 \times 10^{45}$ g cm$^{2}$. Assuming a measurement of the PSR J0737-3039A moment of inertia to 10% precision, we study the implications for neutron star radii and tidal deformabilities. We also determine the crustal component of the moment of inertia and find that for typical neutron star masses of 1.3 M_sun < M < 1.5 M_sun the crust contributes 1% - 6% of the total moment of inertia, below what is needed to explain large pulsar glitches in the scenario of strong neutron entrainment.