Nuclear matter in the crust of neutron stars
arXiv:0704.1984 · doi:10.1103/PhysRevC.76.024312
Abstract
The properties of inhomogeneous nuclear matter are investigated considering the self-consistent Skyrme Hartree-Fock approach with inclusion of pairing correlations. For a comparison we also consider a relativistic mean field approach. The inhomogeneous infinite matter is described in terms of cubic Wigner-Seitz cells, which leads to a smooth transition to the limit of homogeneous nuclear matter. The possible existence of various structures in the so-called pasta phase is investigated within this self-consistent approach and a comparison is made to results obtained within the Thomas-Fermi approximation. Results for the proton abundances and the pairing properties are discussed for densities for which clustering phenomena are obtained.
23 pages, 8 figures