Short-Range Correlations and Urca Process in Neutron Stars
Abstract
Recent measurements of high-momentum correlated neutron-proton pairs at JLab suggest that the dense nucleonic component of the compact stars contains a fraction of high-momentum neutron-proton pairs that is not accounted for in the familiar Fermi-liquid theory of the neutron-proton fluid mixture. We compute the rate of the Urca process in compact stars taking into account the non-Fermi liquid contributions to the proton's spectral widths induced by short-range correlations. The Urca rate differs strongly from the Fermi-liquid prediction at low temperatures, in particular, the high threshold on the proton fraction precluding the Urca process in neutron stars is replaced by a smooth increase with the proton fraction. This observation may have a profound impact on the theories of cooling of compact stars.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2406.16183,
title = {Short-Range Correlations and Urca Process in Neutron Stars},
author = {Armen Sedrakian},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2406.16183},
year = {2024}
}
Comments
v3: added references and fixed typos. Matches the published version, 6 pages, 2 figures. v2: Typos fixed; v1: 5 pages, 2 figures