Chiral symmetry restoration and hyperon suppression in neutron stars

Abstract

The ``hyperon puzzle'' remains a fundamental challenge in nuclear astrophysics. We investigate hyperon emergence in neutron star matter using the $SU(3)$ parity doublet model with chiral representation $(3,\bar{3}) + (\bar{3},3)$. This framework naturally incorporates chiral symmetry restoration and provides a systematic description of baryon masses in dense matter through the interplay between the chiral condensate and the chiral invariant mass $m_0$. We find that the hyperon onset density exhibits strong sensitivity to $m_0$: for $m_0 = 500$ MeV, hyperons first appear at $1.9n_0$ while for $m_0 \gtrsim 750$ MeV, hyperons emerge only above $5n_0$. This delayed onset arises from the weakened density dependence of baryon masses at larger $m_0$ values. When the hyperon onset density exceeds the expected quark-hadron transition range ($2$--$5n_0$), matter undergoes deconfinement before hyperons populate, avoiding the EoS softening while maintaining consistency with massive neutron star observations. Our results demonstrate that chiral dynamics provides a natural resolution to the hyperon puzzle without requiring ad hoc repulsive hyperon interactions.