Revisiting the Rhoades-Ruffini bound
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arXiv
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| Format: | Preprint |
| Published: |
2026
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| _version_ | 1866918426784563200 |
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| author | Blaschke, David Wojcik, Adrian |
| author_facet | Blaschke, David Wojcik, Adrian |
| contents | We revisit the derivation of the Rhoades-Ruffini bound on the upper limit for the maximum mass of neutron stars and find that the assumption made there for the onset of an ultimately stiff phase of high-density matter is not stringent. Relaxing this assumption and allowing for an onset of stiff non-nucleonic matter under neutron star constraints at the saturation density or below boost the upper limit of the theoretically possible maximum mass to $4~M_\odot$ or higher, in the mass-gap region between neutron stars and stellar-mass black holes. We provide a fit formula for the dependence of this upper limit on the speed of sound and the onset density of the deconfinement transition. |
| format | Preprint |
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arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2604_03204 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Revisiting the Rhoades-Ruffini bound Blaschke, David Wojcik, Adrian Nuclear Theory High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena We revisit the derivation of the Rhoades-Ruffini bound on the upper limit for the maximum mass of neutron stars and find that the assumption made there for the onset of an ultimately stiff phase of high-density matter is not stringent. Relaxing this assumption and allowing for an onset of stiff non-nucleonic matter under neutron star constraints at the saturation density or below boost the upper limit of the theoretically possible maximum mass to $4~M_\odot$ or higher, in the mass-gap region between neutron stars and stellar-mass black holes. We provide a fit formula for the dependence of this upper limit on the speed of sound and the onset density of the deconfinement transition. |
| title | Revisiting the Rhoades-Ruffini bound |
| topic | Nuclear Theory High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.03204 |