Related papers: Formation of Nuclear "Pasta" in Supernovae
Atomic nuclei are transformed into each other in the cosmos by nuclear reactions inside stars: -- the process of nucleosynthesis. The basic concepts of determining nuclear reaction rates inside stars and how they manage to burn their fuel…
Neutron star crusts are studied using a classical molecular dynamics model developed for heavy ion reactions. After the model is shown to produce a plethora of the so-called "pasta" shapes, a series of techniques borrowed from nuclear…
To provide a practitioner's introduction to the study of the nuclear pasta, this article presents a brief review of the evolution of the methods used to study nucleon dynamics. This is followed with a more complete description of the…
We propose a new nucleosynthesis process in which various nuclei are formed through the liquid-gas phase transition of supernova matter as a preprocess of the standard r-process, and study its possibility of realization qualitatively. In…
Formed in the aftermath of gravitational core-collapse supernova explosions, neutron stars are unique cosmic laboratories for probing the properties of matter under extreme conditions that cannot be reproduced in terrestrial laboratories.…
Neutron star and supernova matter at densities just below the nuclear matter saturation density is expected to form a lattice of exotic shapes. These so-called nuclear pasta phases are caused by Coulomb frustration. Their elastic and…
Within our Galaxy, supernova remnants are believed to be the major sources of cosmic rays up to the "knee". However important questions remain regarding the share of the hadronic and leptonic components, and the fraction of the supernova…
As an explosion develops in the collapsed core of a massive star, neutrino emission drives convection in a hot bubble of radiation, nucleons, and pairs just outside a proto-neutron star. Shortly thereafter, neutrinos drive a wind-like…
Nucleonic matter is described within a su(2) extended Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model. Several parametrizations with different nuclear matter saturation properties are proposed. At subsaturation, nuclear pasta phases are calculated within two…
We numerically explore the pasta structures and properties of low-density nuclear matter without any assumption on the geometry. We observe conventional pasta structures, while a mixture of the pasta structures appears as a metastable state…
Self-consistent, multidimensional core-collapse supernova (SN) simulations, especially in 3D, have achieved tremendous progress over the past 10 years. They are now able to follow the entire evolution from core collapse through bounce,…
At very large densities and/or temperatures a quark-hadron phase transition is expected to take place. Simulations of QCD on lattice at zero baryon density indicate that the transition occurs at $T_c \sim 150-170$ MeV. The calculations…
The canonical thermodynamic model has been used frequently to describe the disassembly of hot nuclear matter consisting of neutrons and protons. Such matter is formed in intermediate energy heavy ion collisions. Here we extend the method to…
The interior of a neutron star is expected to exhibit different states of matter. In particular, complex non-spherical configurations known as `pasta' phases may exist at the highest densities in the inner crust, potentially having an…
Supernova explosions of massive stars are one of the primary sites for the production of the elements in the universe. Up to now, stars with zero-age main-sequence masses in the range of 35--50~$M_\odot$ had mostly been representing the…
Dense matter as it can be found in core-collapse supernovae and neutron stars is expected to exhibit different phase transitions which impact the matter composition and the equation of state, with important consequences on the dynamics of…
We investigate observable signatures of a first-order quantum chromodynamics (QCD) phase transition in the context of core collapse supernovae. To this end, we conduct axially symmetric numerical relativity simulations with multi-energy…
Pairing effects in non-uniform nuclear matter, surrounded by electrons, are studied in the protoneutron star early stage and in other conditions. The so-called nuclear pasta phases at subsaturation densities are solved in a Wigner-Seitz…
This investigation explores the phononic thermal conductivity of nuclear star matter as it undergoes the "topological" transition to the "pasta" regime, and further down to the solid-liquid phase transition. The study was carried out using…
Recent calculations indicate that in the outer parts of neutron stars nuclei are rod-like or slab-like, rather than roughly spherical. We consider the elastic properties of these phases, and argue that they behave as liquid crystals, rather…