Analytical representations of unified equations of state for neutron-star matter

Context. An equation of state (EoS) of dense nuclear matter is a prerequisite for studies of the structure and evolution of compact stars. A unified EoS should describe the crust and the core of a neutron star using the same physical model. The Brussels-Montreal group has recently derived a family of such EoSs based on the nuclear energy-density functional theory with generalized Skyrme effective forces that have been fitted with great precision to essentially all the available mass data. At the same time, these forces were constrained to reproduce microscopic calculations of homogeneous neutron matter based on realistic two- and three-nucleon forces.