Bayesian reconstruction of nuclear matter parameters from the equation of state of neutron star matter

International audienceThe nuclear matter parameters (NMPs), those underlie in the construction of the equation of state (EoS) of neutron star matter, are not directly accessible. A Bayesian approach is applied to reconstruct the posterior distributions of NMPs from the EoS of neutron star matter. The constraints on lower-order parameters as imposed by the finite nuclei observables are incorporated through appropriately chosen prior distributions. The calculations are performed with two sets of pseudo data on the EoS whose true models are known. The median values of second- or higher-order NMPs show sizable deviations from their true values, and associated uncertainties are also larger. The sources of these uncertainties are identified as (i) the correlations among various NMPs and (ii) leeway in the EoS of symmetric nuclear matter, symmetry energy, and neutron-proton asymmetry which propagates into the posterior distributions of the NMPs