Neutron Star Equation of State via Physics Informed Neural Network

Abstract

We present the first application, to the best of our knowledge, of Physics-Informed Neural Networks (PINNs) to the neutron star equation-of-state (EOS) inverse problem. Two interacting networks -- one representing the EOS $P(\varepsilon)$ as a continuous, non-parametric function, the other solving the Tolman-Oppenheimer-Volkoff (TOV) equations -- are trained jointly on NICER X-ray timing posteriors and pulsar mass measurements. The TOV equations enter as a mean-square ODE residual enforced via automatic differentiation at every training step, rooted in the Neural Differential Equation framework. The inferred EOS satisfies nuclear saturation properties, causality, and perturbative QCD bounds simultaneously; $χ$EFT consistency at $1$--$2\rhoz$ emerges without explicit enforcement, providing a non-trivial self-consistency check. Across $N=15$ independent training runs, we find a neutron star maximum mass $M_\mathrm{max}=2.06^{+0.07}_{-0.09}$ and radius and tidal deformability of a 1.4 $M_\odot$ star $R_{1.4}=12.85^{+0.03}_{-0.06}$~km and $Λ_{1.4}=684$, respectively, with 68\% CI, in agreement with recent Bayesian analyses. Most interestingly, the speed of sound exhibits a reproducible softening at $2$--$4\,\rhoz$, consistent with a quark-hadron crossover.