Nuclear pasta in hot and dense matter and its influence on the equation of state for astrophysical simulations

Fan Ji, Jinniu Hu, Shishao Bao, and Hong Shen
Phys. Rev. C 102, 015806 – Published 27 July 2020

Abstract

We explore the properties of nuclear pasta appearing in supernova matter, i.e., matter at finite temperature with a fixed proton fraction. The pasta phases with a series of geometric shapes are studied using the compressible liquid-drop (CLD) model, where nuclear matter separates into a dense liquid phase of nucleons and a dilute gas phase of nucleons and α particles. The equilibrium conditions for two coexisting phases are derived by minimization of the total free energy including the surface and Coulomb contributions, which are clearly different from the Gibbs conditions for phase equilibrium due to the finite-size effects. Compared to the results considering only spherical nuclei, the inclusion of pasta phases can delay the transition to uniform matter and enlarge the region of nonuniform matter in the phase diagram. The thermodynamic quantities obtained in the present calculation with the CLD model are consistent with those in the realistic equation of state table for astrophysical simulations using the Thomas-Fermi approximation. It is found that the density ranges of various pasta shapes depend on both the temperature T and the proton fraction Yp. Furthermore, the nuclear symmetry energy and its density dependence may play crucial roles in determining the properties of pasta phases. Our results suggest that the pasta phase diagram is most sensitively dependent on the symmetry energy slope L especially in the low-Yp and high-T region.

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  • Received 27 April 2020
  • Accepted 13 July 2020

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.102.015806

©2020 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Gravitation, Cosmology & AstrophysicsNuclear Physics

Authors & Affiliations

Fan Ji1, Jinniu Hu1,2,*, Shishao Bao3,†, and Hong Shen1,‡

  • 1School of Physics, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China
  • 2Strangeness Nuclear Physics Laboratory, RIKEN Nishina Center, Wako 351-0198, Japan
  • 3School of Physics and Information Engineering, Shanxi Normal University, Linfen 041004, China

  • *hujinniu@nankai.edu.cn
  • bao_shishao@163.com
  • shennankai@gmail.com

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Issue

Vol. 102, Iss. 1 — July 2020

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