Delta baryons in neutron-star matter under strong magnetic fields

In this work, we study magnetic field effects on neutron star matter containing the baryon octet and additional heavier spin 3/2 baryons (the $$\varDelta $$ ’s). We make use of two different relativistic hadronic models that contain an additional vector-isovector self interaction for the mesons: one version of a relativistic mean field (RMF) model and the chiral mean field (CMF) model. We find that both the additional interaction and a strong magnetic field enhance the $$\varDelta $$ baryon population in dense matter, while decreasing the relative density of hyperons. At the same time that the vector-isovector meson interaction modifies neutron-star masses very little ( $$<0.1~\mathrm M_{\mathrm{Sun}}$$ ), it decreases their radii considerably, allowing both models to be in better agreement with observations. Together, these features indicate that magnetic neutron stars are likely to contain $$\varDelta $$ baryons in their interior.