Neutron Star: Equations of State, Phase Transitions, and the MIT Bag Model

Neutron stars are among the densest objects in the universe. The uncertainty of the internal structure of these stars have led to different ideas for modeling the core of these stars. Such different structures investigated include a purely nuclear core and a core composed of two layers, an inner quark plasma and a nuclear outer core. To model the quark core, the MIT bag model EoS will be explored to see the effect the bag pressure constant has on the different possible star configurations. With an equation of state for both the nuclear and quark layers of the core, we can assume the star is in an equilibrated state and perform a maxwell construction for the phase transition from nuclear to quark matter. Although the core is the main focus of the research, the crust is also explored, as well as it's resulting effect on the Mass and Radius. The results are different Mass-Radius curves that we can compare with observation and high energy collision experiments. In the meantime, a more sophisticated extended MIT bag model is currently being explored where vector interactions are taken into account and the resulting star configurations can vary dramatically.