Neutron Stars and Quantum Billiards
Abstract
Homogeneous neutron matter at subnuclear densities becomes unstable towards the formation of inhomogeneities. Depending on the average value of the neutron density one can observe the appearance of either bubbles, rods, tubes or plates embeded in a neutron gas. We estimate the quantum corrections to the ground state energy (which could be termed either shell correction or Casimir energy) of such phases of neutron matter. The calculations are performed by evaluating the contribution of the shortest periodic orbits in the Gutzwiller trace formula for the density of states. The magnitude of the quantum corrections to the ground state energy of neutron matter are of the same order as the energy differences between various phases.
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0007423,
title = {Neutron Stars and Quantum Billiards},
author = {Aurel Bulgac and Piotr Magierski},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0007423},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
11 pages, contribution to the Nobel Symposium on Quantum Chaos Y2K, Backaskog Castle, Sweden, June 13-17, 2000