In the context of the massive secondary object recently observed in the compact-star merger GW190814, we investigate the possibility of producing massive neutron stars from a few different equation of state models that contain exotic degrees of freedom, such as hyperons and quarks. Our work shows that state-of-the-art relativistic mean-field models can generate massive stars reaching $\gtrsim 2.05{\mathrm{M}}_{\mathrm{Sun}}$, while being in good agreement with gravitational-wave events and x-ray pulsar observations, when quark vector interactions and nonstandard self-vector interactions are introduced. In particular, we present a new version of the Chiral Mean Field (CMF) model in which a different quark-deconfinement potential allows for stable stars with a pure quark core. When rapid rotation is considered, our models generate stellar masses that approach, and in some cases surpass $2.5{\mathrm{M}}_{\mathrm{Sun}}$. We find that in such cases fast rotation does not necessarily suppress exotic degrees of freedom due to changes in stellar central density, but require a larger amount of baryons than what is allowed in the nonrotating stars. This is not the case for pure quark stars, which can easily reach $2.5{\mathrm{M}}_{\mathrm{Sun}}$ and still possess approximately the same amount of baryons as stable nonrotating stars. We also briefly discuss possible origins for fast rotating stars with a large amount of baryons and their stability, showing how the event GW190814 can be associated with a star containing quarks as one of its progenitors.

This review aims at providing an extensive discussion of modern constraints relevant for dense and hot strongly interacting matter. It includes theoretical first-principle results from lattice and perturbative QCD, as well as chiral effective field theory results. From the experimental side, it includes heavy-ion collision and low-energy nuclear physics results, as well as observations from neutron stars and their mergers. The validity of different constraints, concerning specific conditions and ranges of applicability, is also provided.

CompOSE (CompStar Online Supernovae Equations of State) is an online repository of equations of state (EoS) for use in nuclear physics and astrophysics, e.g., in the description of compact stars or the simulation of core-collapse supernovae and neutron-star mergers, see . The main services, offered via the website, are: a collection of data tables in a flexible and easily extendable data format for different EoS types and related physical quantities with extensive documentation and referencing; software for download to extract and to interpolate these data and to calculate additional quantities; webtools to generate EoS tables that are customized to the needs of the users and to illustrate dependencies of various EoS quantities in graphical form. This manual is an update of previous versions that are available on the CompOSE website, at , and that was originally published in the journal “Physics of Particles and Nuclei” with . It contains a detailed description of the service, containing a general introduction as well as instructions for potential contributors and for users. Short versions of the manual for EoS users and providers will also be available as separate publications. Graphical

We study in detail the nuclear aspects of a neutron-star merger in which deconfinement to quark matter takes place. For this purpose, we make use of the Chiral Mean Field (CMF) model, an effective relativistic model that includes self-consistent chiral symmetry restoration and deconfinement to quark matter and, for this reason, predicts the existence of different degrees of freedom depending on the local density/chemical potential and temperature. We then use the out-of-chemical-equilibrium finite-temperature CMF equation of state in full general-relativistic simulations to analyze which regions of different QCD phase diagrams are probed and which conditions, such as strangeness and entropy, are generated when a strong first-order phase transition appears. We also investigate the amount of electrons present in different stages of the merger and discuss how far from chemical equilibrium they can be and, finally, draw some comparisons with matter created in supernova explosions and heavy-ion collisions.

The speed of sound of the matter within neutron stars may contain nonsmooth structure related to first- or higher-order phase transitions. Here we investigate what are the observable consequences of structure in the speed of sound, such as bumps, spikes, step functions, plateaus, and kinks. One of the main consequences is the possibility of ultraheavy neutron stars (with masses larger than 2.5 solar masses), mass twins in heavy (with masses larger than 2 solar masses) and ultraheavy neutron stars. These stars pass all observational and theoretical constraints, including those imposed by recent LIGO/Virgo gravitational-wave observations and NICER x-ray observations. We thoroughly investigate other consequences of this structure in the speed of sound to develop an understanding of how nonsmooth features affect astrophysical observables, such as stellar radii, tidal deformability, moment of inertia, and Love number. Our results have important implications for future gravitational wave and x-ray observations of neutron stars and their impact in nuclear astrophysics.

First-order phase transitions (PTs) with more than one globally conserved charge, so-called noncongruent PTs, have characteristic differences compared to congruent PTs (e.g., dimensionality of phase diagrams and location and properties of critical points and end points). In the present article we investigate the noncongruence of the nuclear liquid-gas PT at subsaturation densities and the deconfinement PT at high densities and/or temperatures in Coulombless models, relevant for heavy-ion collisions and neutron stars. For the first PT, we use the FSUgold relativistic mean-field model and for the second one the relativistic chiral SU(3) model. The chiral SU(3) model is one of the few models for the deconfinement PT, which contains quarks and hadrons in arbitrary proportions (i.e., a ``solution'') and gives a continuous transition from pure hadronic to pure quark matter above a critical point. The study shows the universality of the applied concept of noncongruence for the two PTs with an upper critical point and illustrates the different typical scales involved. In addition, we find a principle difference between the liquid-gas and the deconfinement PTs: in contrast to the ordinary Van-der-Waals-like PT, the phase coexistence line of the deconfinement PT has a negative slope in the pressure-temperature plane. As another qualitative difference we find that the noncongruent features of the deconfinement PT become vanishingly small around the critical point.