Thermodynamic properties of nuclear “pasta” in neutron star crusts

✍ Scribed by Gentaro Watanabe; Kei Iida; Katsuhiko Sato

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2000
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 232 KB
• Volume: 676
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0375-9474
• DOI: 10.1016/s0375-9474(00)00197-4

✦ Synopsis

Equilibrium phase diagrams for neutron star matter at subnuclear densities are obtained at zero temperature. Spherical, rod-like and slab-like nuclei as well as spherical and rod-like nuclear bubbles are taken into account by using a compressible liquid-drop model. This model is designed to incorporate uncertainties in the nuclear surface tension and in the proton chemical potential in a gas of dripped neutrons. The resultant phase diagrams show that for typical values of these quantities, the phases with rod-like nuclei and with slab-like nuclei occur in the form of Coulomb lattice at densities below a point where the system becomes uniform. Thermal fluctuations leading to displacements of such nuclei from their equilibrium positions are considered through explicit evaluations of their elastic constants; these fluctuations can be effective at destroying the layered lattice of slab-like nuclei in the temperature region typical of matter in the neutron star crust.