English

Beta equilibrium under neutron star merger conditions

Nuclear Theory 2023-10-10 v3 High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

Abstract

We calculate the nonzero-temperature correction to the beta equilibrium condition in nuclear matter under neutron star merger conditions, in the temperature range 11\,MeV<T5 < T \lesssim 5\,MeV. We improve on previous work by using a consistent description of nuclear matter based on the IUF and SFHo relativistic mean field models. This includes using relativistic dispersion relations for the nucleons, which we show is essential in these models. We find that the nonzero-temperature correction can be of order 1010 to 2020\,MeV, and plays an important role in the correct calculation of Urca rates, which can be wrong by factors of 1010 or more if it is neglected.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2108.03324,
  title  = {Beta equilibrium under neutron star merger conditions},
  author = {Mark G. Alford and Alexander Haber and Steven P. Harris and Ziyuan Zhang},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2108.03324},
  year   = {2023}
}

Comments

v2: version published in Universe, minor changes in nomenclature, 20 pages, 14 figures v3: corrected typo in Eq.(C19)

R2 v1 2026-06-24T04:54:15.320Z