Tasting nuclear pasta made with classical molecular dynamics simulations

Abstract

Nuclear clusters or voids in the inner crust of neutron stars were predicted to have various shapes collectively nicknamed nuclear pasta. The recent review in Ref. [1] by López, Dorso and Frank summarized their systematic investigations into properties especially the morphological and thermodynamical phase transitions of the nuclear pasta within a Classical Molecular Dynamics model, providing further stimuli to find more observational evidences of the predicted nuclear pasta in neutron stars.

References

[1] J. A. López, C. O. Dorso, and G. Frank, Properties of nuclear pastas, Front. Phys. 16(2), 24301 (2021)

[2] The National Academies Press, New Worlds, New Horizons in Astronomy and Astrophysics, 2011,

[3] The National Academies Press, Nuclear Physics: Exploring the Heart of Matter, Report of the Committee on the Assessment of and Outlook for Nuclear Physics, 2012,

[4] The 2015 U.S. Long Range Plan for Nuclear Science, Reaching for the Horizon,

[5] The Nuclear Physics European Collaboration Committee (NuPECC) Long Range Plan, 2017, Perspectives in Nuclear Physics,

[6] P. J. Siemens, Liquid–gas phase transition in nuclear matter, Nature 305(5933), 29 (1983)

[7] J. M. Lattimer and M. Prakash, Nuclear matter and its role in supernovae, neutron stars and compact object binary mergers, Phys. Rep. 333, 121 (2000)

[8] B. A. Li, P. G. Krastev, D. H. Wen, and N. B. Zhang, Towards understanding astrophysical effects of nuclear symmetry energy, Eur. Phys. J. A 55(7), 39 (2019)

[9] J. Xu, L. W. Chen, B. A. Li, and H. R. Ma, Nuclear constraints on properties of neutron star crusts, Astrophys. J. 697(2), 1549 (2009)

[10] W. G. Newton, M. Gearheart, and B. A. Li, A survey of the parameter space of the compressible liquid drop model as applied to the neutron star inner crust, Astrophys. J. Suppl. Ser. 204(1), 9 (2013)

[11] C. J. Pethick and D. G. Ravenhall, Matter at large neutron excess and the physics of neutron-star crusts, Annu. Rev. Nucl. Part. Sci. 45(1), 429 (1995)

[12] D. G. Ravenhall, C. J. Pethick, and J. R. Wilson, Structure of matter below nuclear saturation density, Phys. Rev. Lett. 50(26), 2066 (1983)

[13] M. Hashimoto, H. Seki, and M. Yamada, Shape of nuclei in the crust of neutron star, Prog. Theor. Phys. 71(2), 320 (1984)

[14] K. I. Nakazato, K. Oyamatsu, and S. Yamada, Gyroid phase in nuclear pasta, Phys. Rev. Lett. 103(13), 132501 (2009)

[15] C. O. Dorso, P. A. Giménez Molinelli, and J. A. López, Topological characterization of neutron star crusts, Phys. Rev. C 86(5), 055805 (2012)

[16] D. K. Berry, M. E. Caplan, C. J. HorowitzG. Huber, and A. S. Schneider, “parking-garage” structures in nuclear astrophysics and cellular biophysics, Phys. Rev. C 94, 055801 (2016)

[17] R. D. Williams and S. E. Koonin, Sub-saturation phases of nuclear matter, Nucl. Phys. A 435(3–4), 844 (1985)

[18] K. Oyamatsu, Nuclear shapes in the inner crust of a neutron star, Nucl. Phys. A 561(3), 431 (1993)

[19] C. P. Lorenz, D. G. Ravenhall, and C. J. Pethick, Neutron star crusts, Phys. Rev. Lett. 70(4), 379 (1993)

[20] K. S. Cheng, C. C. Yao, and Z. G. Dai, Properties of nuclei in the inner crusts of neutron stars in the relativistic meanfield theory, Phys. Rev. C 55(4), 2092 (1997)

[21] G. Watanabe, K. Iida, and K. Sato, Thermodynamic properties of nuclear “pasta” in neutron star crusts, Nucl. Phys. A 676(1–4), 445 (2000)

[22] G. Watanabe, K. Sato, K. Yasuoka, and T. Ebisuzaki, Microscopic study of slablike and rodlike nuclei: Quantum molecular dynamics approach, Phys. Rev. C 66(1), 012801 (2002)

[23] G. Watanabe and K. Iida, Electron screening in the liquidgas mixed phases of nuclear matter, Phys. Rev. C 68(4), 045801 (2003)

[24] T. Maruyama, K. Niita, K. Oyamatsu, T. Maruyama, S. Chiba, and A. Iwamoto, Quantum molecular dynamics approach to the nuclear matter below the saturation density, Phys. Rev. C 57(2), 655 (1998)

[25] T. Kido, T. Maruyama, K. Niita, and S. Chiba, MD simulation study for nuclear matter, Nucl. Phys. A663–664, 877c (2000)

[26] C. J. Horowitz, M. A. Pérez-Garcia, J. Carriere, D. K. Berry, and J. Piekarewicz, Nonuniform neutron-rich matter and coherent neutrino scattering, Phys. Rev. C 70(6), 065806 (2004)

[27] W. G. Newton and J. R. Stone, Modeling nuclear “pasta” and the transition to uniform nuclear matter with the 3D Skyrme–Hartree–Fock method at finite temperature: Core-collapse supernovae, Phys. Rev. C 79(5), 055801 (2009)

[28] S. S. Bao and H. Shen, Impact of the symmetry energy on nuclear pasta phases and crust-core transition in neutron stars, Phys. Rev. C 91(1), 015807 (2015)

[29] K. Oyamatsu, K. Iida, and H. Sotani, Systematic study of pasta nuclei in neutron stars with families of the empirical nuclear equations of state, J. Phys. Conf. Ser. 1643, 012059 (2020)

[30] C. J. Xia, T. Maruyama, N. Yasutake, T. Tatsumi, and J. X. Zhang, Nuclear pasta structures and symmetry energy, arXiv: 2012.01218

[31] N. Chamel and P. Haensel, Physics of neutron star crusts, Living Rev. Relativ. 11(1), 10 (2008)

[32] W. G. Newton, J. Hooker, M. Gearheart, K. Murphy, D. H. Wen, F. Fattoyev, and B. A. Li, Constraints on the symmetry energy from observational probes of the neutron star crust, Euro. Phys. J. A 50, 41 (2014)

[33] M. E. Caplan and C. J. Horowitz, Astromaterial science and nuclear pasta, Rev. Mod. Phys. 89(4), 041002 (2017)

[34] M. D. Alloy and D. P. Menezes, Nuclear “pasta phase” and its consequences on neutrino opacities, Phys. Rev. C 83(3), 035803 (2011)

[35] W. G. Newton, K. Murphy, J. Hooker, and B. A. Li, The cooling of the Cassiopeia A neutron star as a probe of the nuclear symmetry energy and nuclear pasta, Astrophys. J. 779(1), L4 (2013)

[36] A. Roggero, J. Margueron, L. F. Roberts, and S. Reddy, Nuclear pasta in hot dense matter and its implications for neutrino scattering, Phys. Rev. C 97(4), 045804 (2018)

[37] B. Schuetrumpf, G. Martinez-Pinedo, and P. G. Reinhard, Survey of nuclear pasta in the intermediate-density regime: Structure functions for neutrino scattering, Phys. Rev. C 101(5), 055804 (2020)

[38] G. Watanabe and C. J. Pethick, Superfluid density of neutrons in the inner crust of neutron stars: New life for pulsar glitch models, Phys. Rev. Lett. 119(6), 062701 (2017)

[39] J. Hooker, W. G. Newton, and B. A. Li, Efficacy of crustal superfluid neutrons in pulsar glitch models, Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 449(4), 3559 (2015)

[40] M. E. Caplan, A. S. Schneider, and C. J. Horowitz, Elasticity of nuclear pasta, Phys. Rev. Lett. 121(13), 132701 (2018)

[41] C. J. Pethick, Z. W. Zhang, and D. N. Kobyakov, Elastic properties of phases with nonspherical nuclei in dense matter, Phys. Rev. C 101(5), 055802 (2020)

[42] B. Biswas, R. Nandi, P. Char, and S. Bose, Role of crustal physics in the tidal deformation of a neutron star, Phys. Rev. D 100(4), 044056 (2019)

[43] F. Gittins, N. Andersson, and J. P. Pereira, Tidal deformations of neutron stars with elastic crusts, Phys. Rev. D 101(10), 103025 (2020)

[44] M. Gearheart, W. G. Newton, J. Hooker, and B. A. Li, Upper limits on the observational effects of nuclear pasta in neutron stars, Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 418(4), 2343 (2011)

[45] H. Sotani, K. Iida, and K. Oyamatsu, Astrophysical implications of double-layer torsional oscillations in a neutron star crust as a lasagna sandwich, Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 489, 3022 (2019)

[46] D. H. Wen, W. G. Newton, and B. A. Li, Sensitivity of the neutron star r-mode instability window to the density dependence of the nuclear symmetry energy, Phys. Rev. C 85(2), 025801 (2012)

[47] I. Vidaña, Nuclear symmetry energy and the r-mode instability of neutron stars, Phys. Rev. C 85(4), 045808 (2012)

[48] R. Abbott, T. D. Abbott, S. Abraham, F. Acernese, K. Ackley, et al., GW190814: Gravitational waves from the coalescence of a 23 solar mass black hole with a 2.6 solar mass compact object, Astrophys. J. 896(2), L44 (2020)

[49] E. R. Most, L. J. Papenfort, L. R. Weih, and L. Rezzolla, A lower bound on the maximum mass if the secondary in GW190814 was once a rapidly spinning neutron star, Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. Lett. 499(1), L82 (2020)

[50] N. B. Zhang and B. A. Li, GW190814’s secondary component with mass 2.50–2.67 M_⊙ as a superfast pulsar, Astrophys. J. 902(1), 38 (2020)

[51] X. Zhou, A. Li, and B. A. Li, R-mode stability of GW190814’s secondary component as a supermassive and superfast pulsar, arXiv: 2011.11934

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

Higher Education Press