Destabilization of high-mass neutron stars by the emergence of d∗ -hexaquarks

We study the effects of the first nontrivial hexaquark, d∗(2380), on the equation of state of dense neutron star matter and investigate the consequences of its existence for neutron stars. The matter in the core regions of neutron stars is described using density-dependent relativistic mean-field theory. Our results show that within the parameter spaces examined in our paper, (i) the critical density at which the d∗ condensate emerges lies between 4 and 5 times the nuclear saturation density, (ii) d∗ hexaquarks are found to exist only in rather massive neutron stars, (iii) only relatively small fractions of the matter in the core of a massive neutron star may contain hexaquarks.