Quantum Nuclear Pasta and Nuclear Symmetry Energy

Abstract

Complex and exotic nuclear geometries are expected to appear naturally in dense nuclear matter found in the crust of neutron stars and supernovae environment collectively referred to as nuclear pasta. The pasta geometries depend on the average baryon density, proton fraction and temperature and are critically important in the determination of many transport properties of matter in supernovae and the crust of neutron stars. Using a set of self-consistent microscopic nuclear energy density functionals we present the first results of large scale quantum simulations of pasta phases at baryon densities $0.03\le \rho \le 0.10$ fm${}^{-3}$, proton fractions $0.05\le Y_p\le 0.40$, and zero temperature. The full quantum simulations, in particular, allow us to thoroughly investigate the role and impact of the nuclear symmetry energy on pasta configurations. We use the Sky3D code that solves the Skyrme Hartree-Fock equations on a three-dimensional Cartesian grid. For the nuclear interaction we use the state of the art UNEDF1 parametrization, which was introduced to study largely deformed nuclei, hence is suitable for studies of the nuclear pasta. Density dependence of the nuclear symmetry energy is simulated by tuning two purely isovector observables that are insensitive to the current available experimental data. We find that a minimum total number of nucleons $A=2000$ is necessary to prevent the results from containing spurious shell effects and to minimize finite size effects. We find that a variety of nuclear pasta geometries are present in the neutron star crust and the result strongly depends on the nuclear symmetry energy. The impact of the nuclear symmetry energy is less pronounced as the proton fractions increase. Quantum nuclear pasta calculations at $T=0$ MeV are shown to get easily trapped in meta-stable states, and possible remedies to avoid meta-stable solutions are discussed.

23 pages, 18 figures, 8 tables

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Cited by in corpus (42)

• Towards Understanding Astrophysical Effects of Nuclear Symmetry Energy
• GW190814: Impact of a 2.6 solar mass neutron star on nucleonic equations of state
• Dense Nuclear Matter Equation of State from Heavy-Ion Collisions
• Superfluidity in nuclear systems and neutron stars
• Phases of dense matter in compact stars
• The Science of the Einstein Telescope
• The Elasticity of Nuclear Pasta
• Damping of density oscillations in neutrino-transparent nuclear matter
• A Minimal Nuclear Energy Density Functional
• Insights on Skyrme parameters from GW170817
• Extension of nuclear landscape to hyperheavy nuclei
• Curvature-slope correlation of nuclear symmetry energy and its imprints on the crust-core transition, radius and tidal deformability of canonical neutron stars
• Symmetry energy constraints from GW170817 and laboratory experiments
• Entrainment in Superfluid Neutron Star Crusts: Hydrodynamic Description and Microscopic Origin
• Unified neutron star EOSs and neutron star structures in RMF models
• A Neutron Star is born
• Impact of the neutron-star deformability on equation of state parameters
• Effects of nuclear symmetry energy and equation of state on neutron star properties
• Structure and composition of inner crust of neutron stars from Gogny interactions
• Fast neutrino cooling of nuclear pasta in neutron stars: molecular dynamics simulations
• Transport properties of nuclear pasta phase with quantum molecular dynamics
• A Survey of Nuclear Pasta in the Intermediate Density Regime I: Shapes and Energies
• Domains and defects in nuclear "pasta"
• Glassy quantum nuclear pasta in neutron star crusts
• The effect of the energy functional on the pasta-phase properties of catalysed neutron stars
• Phase transitions and symmetry energy in nuclear pasta
• Nuclear pasta structures and symmetry energy
• Unified nuclear matter EOSs constrained by the in-medium balance in density-dependent covariant density functionals
• Unified equations of state for cold non-accreting neutron stars with Brussels-Montreal functionals. IV. Role of the symmetry energy in pasta phases
• Constraints on Skyrme Equations of State from Doubly Magic Nuclei, Ab-Initio Calculations of Low-Density Neutron Matter, and Neutron Stars
• A Survey of Nuclear Pasta in the Intermediate Density Regime: Structure Functions for Neutrino Scattering
• Pasta fluctuations in symmetric matter at finite temperature
• Thermal Fluctuations in Nuclear Pasta
• Nuclear pasta and symmetry energy in the relativistic point-coupling model
• Application of superconducting-superfluid magnetohydrodynamics to nuclear "pasta" in neutron stars
• Nuclear pasta in hot and dense matter and its influence on the equation of state for astrophysical simulations
• Coexistence of Anderson-Bogoliubov phonon and quadrupole cluster vibration in neutron star inner crust
• Nuclear pasta structures at high temperatures
• Elasticity of neutron star mantle: improved compressible liquid drop model for cylindrical phases
• Do short range correlations inhibit the appearance of the nuclear pasta?
• Properties and microscopic structures of dense stellar matter in RMF models
• Phase transitions in the inner crust of neutron stars within the superfluid band theory: Competition between ${}^1{\text{S}}_0$ pairing and spin polarization under finite temperature and magnetic field