Interplay between the symmetry energy and the strangeness content of neutron stars

Abstract: The effect of the density dependence of the nucleonic equation of state and the hyperon meson couplings on the star properties, including strangeness content, mass and radius, are studied within a relativistic mean field formalism. It is shown that there is still lacking information on the nucleonic equation of state at supra-saturation densities and on the hyperon interactions in nuclear matter that will allow a clear answer to the question whether the mass of the pulsar J1614-2230 could rule out exotic degrees of freedom from the interior of compact stars. We show that some star properties are affected in a similar way by the density dependence of the symmetry energy and the hyperon content of the star. To disentangle these two effects it is essential to have a good knowledge of the equation of state at supra-saturation densities. A linear correlation between the radius and the strangeness content of a star with a fixed mass is obtained.