Effects of Differential Rotation on the Maximum Mass of Neutron Stars

Abstract

The maximum mass of neutron stars provides a key constraint on the equation of state (EoS) of dense matter. Recent observations, including the ${\approx}2 M_{\odot}$ pulsar PSR~J0740+6620, have placed strong constraints on a large class of soft EoSs, while the possible existence of a compact object with a mass of $2.50$ - $2.67$ $M_{\odot}$ in GW 190814 further challenges our understanding of dense matter. Moreover, the inclusion of hyperonic degrees of freedom generally softens the EoS, making it difficult to support massive neutron stars even when the $2$ $M_{\odot}$ constraint is satisfied (a problem known as the hyperon puzzle). In this work, we investigate whether differential rotation can enhance the maximum mass of neutron stars constructed with an EoS including hyperons, thereby addressing the maximum-mass constraints imposed by current observations. We employ the Cook-Shapiro-Teukolsky (CST) approach, a numerically improved reformulation of the Komatsu-Eriguchi-Hachisu (KEH) scheme, to construct equilibrium configurations of differentially rotating neutron stars. For the nuclear matter EoS, we adopt a relativistic mean-field (RMF) model incorporating hyperonic degrees of freedom through an SU(6) symmetric coupling scheme. We find that differential rotation can substantially increase the maximum mass, yielding configurations consistent with the mass range inferred from GW 190814. However, a sufficiently soft EoS fails to satisfy the constraint from PSR~J0740+6620 (346 Hz) even with differential rotation applied. We also present a systematic analysis of the internal structure of the resulting equilibrium configurations. Furthermore, we demonstrate the existence of quasi-toroidal configurations and present equilibrium sequences incorporating the full baryon octet under extreme differential rotation.