Persistence of cold-matter effective mass correlations at finite temperature

Determine whether correlations between nuclear saturation parameters—particularly the effective nucleon mass m∗—and fundamental f-mode oscillation properties that are established for cold β‑equilibrated neutron stars persist in finite‑temperature contexts, including proto‑neutron star oscillations and binary neutron star merger remnants.

Background

Prior works within the non-linear relativistic mean field framework have shown that the effective nucleon mass m∗ strongly correlates with macroscopic properties (radius, tidal deformability) and oscillation-mode characteristics (e.g., f-mode) in cold β‑equilibrated neutron stars. These results motivate examining whether similar correlations survive when thermal effects are significant.

Finite-temperature scenarios—such as newly born proto‑neutron stars and remnants of binary neutron star mergers—introduce entropy and composition effects that can modify the equation of state and stellar structure. Establishing the robustness or breakdown of these cold-matter correlations in hot configurations is essential for gravitational-wave asteroseismology and for interpreting multi-messenger observations of hot neutron stars.