2020MNRAS.498.3616A

We investigate equilibrium configurations of uniformly rotating neutron stars in R² gravity with axion scalar field for GM1 equation of state (EoS) for nuclear matter. The mass-radius diagram, mass-central energy density are presented for some frequencies in comparison with static stars. We also compute equatorial and polar radii and moment of inertia for stars. For axion field ph, the coupling in the form ∼R²ph is assumed. Several interesting results follow from our consideration. Maximal possible star mass with given EoS increases due to the contribution of coupling term. We discovered the possibility to increase maximal frequency of the rotation in comparison with General Relativity. As a consequence, the lower bound on mass of the fast rotating stars decreases. For frequency f = 700 Hz, neutron stars with masses ∼M_☉ can exist for some choice of parameters (in General Relativity for same EoS, this limit is around 1.2 M_☉). Another feature of our solutions is relatively small increase of stars' radii for high frequencies in comparison with static case. Thus, eventually, the new class of neutron stars in R² gravity with axions is discovered namely fast rotating compact stars with intermediate masses.