Shell structure of nuclei in strong magnetic fields in neutron star crusts

By employing Strutinsky's treatment we demonstrate that the magnetic field gives rise to a phase shift of the shell oscillations in nuclear masses. The proton orbital magnetism is shown to enhance the nuclear shell effect especially when the field influence is comparable to the spin-orbit coupling. The magnetic field of the strength scale B approximately 10(16)-10(17) G is found to shift significantly the nuclear magic numbers of the iron region towards smaller mass numbers.     

Resonant shattering of neutron star crusts

The resonant excitation of neutron star (NS) modes by tides is investigated as a source of short gamma-ray burst (SGRB) precursors. We find that the driving of a crust-core interface mode can lead to shattering of the NS crust, liberating ～10{46}-10{47} erg of energy seconds before the merger of a NS-NS or NS-black-hole binary. Such properties are consistent with Swift/BAT detections of SGRB precursors, and we use the timing of the observed precursors to place weak constraints on the crust equation of state. We describe how a larger sample of precursor detections could be used alongside coincident gravitational wave detections of the inspiral by Advanced LIGO class detectors to probe the NS structure. These two types of observations nicely complement one another, since the former constrains the equation of state and structure near the crust-core boundary, while the latter is more sensitive to the core equation of state.     

Nuclear symmetry energy effects in finite nuclei and neutron star

Within a relativistic mean-field model with nonlinear isoscalar–isovector coupling, we explore the possibility of constraining the density dependence of nuclear symmetry energy from a systematic study of the neutron skin thickness of finite nuclei and neutron star properties. We find the present skin data supports a rather stiff symmetry energy at subsaturation densities that corresponds to a soft symmetry energy at supranormal densities. Correlation between the skin of ²⁰⁸Pb and the neutron star masses and radii with kaon condensation has been studied. We find that ²⁰⁸Pb skin estimate suggest star radii that reveals considerable model dependence. Thus precise measurements of neutron star radii in conjunction with skin thickness of heavy nuclei could provide significant constraint on the density dependence of symmetry energy.     

Statistics of magnetic noise in neutron star crusts

The neutron star crust magnetodynamics is demonstrated to exhibit erratic jumps at the fields corresponding to a sharp change of nuclide magnetic moments induced by quantization effects. Such a noise originates from magnetic avalanches and shows intensity and statistical properties which are favorably compared to the burst activity of soft gamma repeaters.     

Thermal conduction across neutron star crusts and cooling of young neutron stars

We calculate thermal conduction times in the crust and core of a neutron star and find that for certain neutron star models the surface remains thermally isolated from the core at initial times. The surface temperature of a few hundred year old neutron star in these models can be insensitive to the presence of a pion-condensed core and might well be within the limits of observability of the HEAO satellite which can help to distinguish between different neutron star models.     

Specific heat of the superfluid neutron matter in neutron star crusts

By means of X-γ andγ-γ coincidence measurements of the³⁵Cl+⁵⁸Ni reaction products, 38γ lines have been identified to be in coincidence with KX(Tc)-rays and assigned to the decay of⁹⁰Ru. Its half-life of 11±3 s has been deduced from the 154.6 keVγ-decay. The result supports our previous identification of⁹⁰Ru produced in the same reactions.     

Pinning mechanism and vortex trap region in neutron star crusts

We investigate, in the framework of a trap/discharge vortex mechanism for pulsars glitches, different hypoteses in order to explain the origin as well as the behavior of the vortex-capacitor zone in the crust of a neutron star. We provide different scenarios depending of temperature and crustal structures.     

Pinning mechanism and vortex trap region in neutron star crusts

We investigate, in the framework of a trap/discharge vortex mechanism for pulsars glitches, different hypoteses in order to explain the origin as well as the behavior of the vortex—capacitor zone in the crust of a neutron star. We provide different scenarios depending of temperature and crustal structures.     

Time-of-flight mass measurements for nuclear processes in neutron star crusts

We present results from time-of-flight nuclear mass measurements at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory that are relevant for neutron star crust models. The masses of 16 neutron-rich nuclei in the scandium-nickel range were determined simultaneously, with the masses of (61)V, (63)Cr, (66)Mn, and (74)Ni measured for the first time with mass excesses of -30.510(890) MeV, -35.280(650) MeV, -36.900(790) MeV, and -49.210(990) MeV, respectively. With these results the locations of the dominant electron capture heat sources in the outer crust of accreting neutron stars that exhibit super bursts are now experimentally constrained. We find the experimental Q value for the (66)Fe→(66)Mn electron capture to be 2.1 MeV (2.6σ) smaller than predicted, resulting in the transition occurring significantly closer to the neutron star surface.     

Thomas—Fermi nuclei in neutron star matter

Acta physica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae - The nuclear structure of zero temperature neutron star matter is investigated in the density region ?=1011?1014 g/cm3. The energy of a...     

Symmetry energy: nuclear masses and neutron stars

We describe the main features of our most recent Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov nuclear mass models, based on 16-parameter generalized Skyrme forces. They have been fitted to the data of the 2012 Atomic Mass Evaluation, and favour a value of 30MeV for the symmetry coefficient J , the corresponding root-mean square deviation being 0.549MeV. We find that this conclusion is compatible with measurements of neutron-skin thickness. By constraining the underlying interactions to fit various equations of state of neutron matter calculated ab initio our models are well adapted to a realistic and unified treatment of all regions of neutron stars. We use our models to calculate the composition, the equation of state, the mass-radius relation and the maximum mass. Comparison with observations of neutron stars again favours a value of J = 30 MeV.     

Unified neutron star EOSs and neutron star structures in RMF models

In the framework of the Thomas-Fermi approximation, we systematically study the EOSs and microscopic structures of neutron star matter in a vast density range with n_b ≈ 10⁻¹⁰-2 fm⁻³, where various covariant density functionals are adopted, i.e., those with nonlinear self couplings (NL3, PK1, TM1, GM1, MTVTC) and density-dependent couplings (DD-LZ1, DDME-X, PKDD, DD-ME2, DD2, TW99). It is found that the EOSs generally coincide with each other at n_b ≲ 10⁻⁴ fm⁻³ and 0.1 fm⁻³ ≲ n_b ≲ 0.3 fm⁻³, while in other density regions they are sensitive to the effective interactions between nucleons. By adopting functionals with a larger slope of symmetry energy L, the curvature parameter K_sym and neutron drip density generally increases, while the droplet size, proton number of nucleus, core-crust transition density, and onset density of non-spherical nuclei, decrease. All functionals predict neutron stars with maximum masses exceeding the two-solar-mass limit, while those of DD2, DD-LZ1, DD-ME2, and DDME-X predict optimum neutron star radii according to the observational constraints. Nevertheless, the corresponding skewness coefficients J are much larger than expected, while only the functionals MTVTC and TW99 meet the start-of-art constraints on J. More accurate measurements on the radius of PSR J0740 + 6620 and the maximum mass of neutron stars are thus essential to identify the functional that satisfies all constraints from nuclear physics and astrophysical observations. Approximate linear correlations between neutron stars' radii at M = 1.4M_⊙ and 2M_⊙, the slope L and curvature parameter K_sym of symmetry energy are observed as well, which are mainly attributed to the curvature-slope correlations in the functionals adopted here. The results presented here are applicable for investigations of the structures and evolutions of compact stars in a unified manner.     

Connecting neutron star observations to three-body forces in neutron matter and to the nuclear symmetry energy

Using a phenomenological form of the equation of state of neutron matter near the saturation density which has been previously demonstrated to be a good characterization of quantum Monte Carlo simulations, we show that currently available neutron star mass and radius measurements provide a significant constraint on the equation of state of neutron matter. At higher densities we model the equation of state by using polytropes and a quark matter model. We show that observations offer an important constraint on the strength of the three-body force in neutron matter, and thus some theoretical models of the three-body force may be ruled out by currently available astrophysical data. In addition, we obtain an estimate of the symmetry energy of nuclear matter and its slope that can be directly compared to the experiment and other theoretical calculations.     

Nuclear and neutron star radii

We investigate the correlation between nuclear neutron radii and the radius of neutron stars. We use a well-established hadronic SU(3) model based on chiral symmetry that naturally includes nonlinear vector meson and scalar meson–vector meson couplings. The relative strengths of the couplings modify the nuclear isospin-dependent interactions. We study the dependence of nuclear and neutron star radii on the coupling strengths. The relevance of the results for parity-violating electron–nucleus scattering is discussed.     

Complexity and neutron star structure

We apply the statistical measure of complexity introduced by López-Ruiz, Mancini and Calbet (1995) [1] to neutron star structure. We continue the recent application of Sañudo and Pacheco (2009) [2] to white dwarfs. The interplay of gravity, the short-range nuclear force and the very short-range weak interaction shows that neutron stars, under the current theoretical framework, are ordered (low complexity) systems.