Repulsive $\Lambda$ potentials in dense neutron star matter and binding energy of $\Lambda$ in hypernuclei

Abstract

The repulsive three-body force between the lambda ($\Lambda$) hyperon and medium nucleons is a key element in solving the hyperon puzzle in neutron stars. We investigate the binding energies of $\Lambda$ hyperon in hypernuclei to verify the repulsive $\Lambda$ potentials from the chiral effective field theory ($\chi$EFT) employing the Skyrme Hartree-Fock method. We find that the $\chi$EFT $\Lambda$ potential with the $\Lambda NN$ three-body forces reproduces the existing hypernuclear binding energy data, whereas the $\Lambda$ binding energies are overestimated without the $\Lambda NN$ three-body force. Additionally, we search for the parameter space of the $\Lambda$ potentials by varying the Taylor coefficients of the $\Lambda$ potential and the effective mass of $\Lambda$ at the saturation density. Our analysis demonstrates that the parameter region consistent with the $\Lambda$ binding energy data spans a wide range of the parameter space, including even more repulsive potentials than the $\chi$EFT prediction. We confirm that these strong repulsive $\Lambda$ potentials suppress the presence of $\Lambda$ in the neutron star matter. We found that the $\Lambda$ potentials repulsive at high densities are favored when the depth of the $\Lambda$ potential at the saturation density, $U_\Lambda(\rho_0)=J_\Lambda$, is $J_\Lambda\gtrsim-29~\text{MeV}$, while attractive ones are favored when $J_\Lambda \lesssim -31~\text{MeV}$. This suggests that the future high-resolution data of hypernuclei could rule out the scenario in which $\Lambda$s appear through the precise determination of $J_\Lambda$ within the accuracy of $1~\text{MeV}$.