The Study of Relatively Low Density Stellar Matter in Presence of Strong Quantizing Magnetic Field

TL;DR

This paper investigates how strong quantizing magnetic fields influence the equation of state of low-density stellar matter in magnetar crusts using a relativistic Thomas-Fermi-Dirac model, revealing electric charge distributions within Wigner-Seitz cells.

Contribution

It develops a formalism based on a relativistic semi-classical model to analyze low-density crustal matter under strong magnetic fields, including electric charge effects.

Findings

Magnetic fields significantly alter the equation of state of crustal matter.

Thomas-Fermi induced electric charges are present within Wigner-Seitz cells.

Comparison with other models highlights the unique effects of strong magnetic quantization.

Abstract

The effect of strong quantizing magnetic field on the equation of state of matter at the outer crust region of magnetars is studied. The density of such matter is low enough compared to the matter density at the inner crust or outer core region. Based on the relativistic version of semi-classical Thomas-Fermi-Dirac model in presence of strong quantizing magnetic field a formalism is developed to investigate this specific problem. The equation of state of such low density crustal matter is obtained by replacing the compressed atoms/ions by Wigner-Seitz cells with nonuniform electron density. The results are compared with other possible scenarios. The appearance of Thomas-Fermi induced electric charge within each Wigner-Seitz cell is also discussed.