Self-consistent description of the inner crust of a neutron star with allowance for superfluidity effects

Within the Wigner-Seitz approximation, a self-consistent fully quantum-mechanical calculation of the structure of the inner crust of a neutron star is performed over a wide range of densities with allowance for superfluidity effects. Within the approach used, the Wigner-Seitz cell consists of a nuclear-like cluster surrounded by a nearly uniform neutron gas. An effective energy functional is constructed by matching, at the cluster surface, the realistic phenomenological nuclear functional for the cluster due to S. A. Fayans and his coauthors and the energy functional calculated microscopically for neutron matter. The microscopic component of the functional is calculated within the Brueckner method by using the v18 Argonne interaction.