Modeling Nuclear Pasta and the Transition to Uniform Nuclear Matter with the 3D-Skyrme-Hartree-Fock Method

TL;DR

This paper presents a new 3D Skyrme-Hartree-Fock+BCS method to model inhomogeneous nuclear matter, capturing complex nuclear shapes and phase transitions relevant for understanding nuclear pasta and the transition to uniform nuclear matter.

Contribution

It introduces a self-consistent 3D approach with quadrupole constraints to explore nuclear configurations across phase transitions without interpolation.

Findings

Successfully models exotic nuclear shapes and neutron drip effects.

Provides equation of state across phase transitions from inhomogeneous to uniform matter.

Captures dissolution of nuclei into nuclear matter.

Abstract

The first results of a new three-dimensional, finite temperature Skyrme-Hartree-Fock+BCS study of the properties of inhomogeneous nuclear matter at densities and temperatures leading to the transition to uniform nuclear matter are presented. A constraint is placed on the two independent components of the quadrupole moment in order to self-consistently explore the shape phase space of nuclear configurations. The scheme employed naturally allows effects such as (i) neutron drip, which results in an external neutron gas, (ii) the variety of exotic nuclear shapes expected for extremely neutron heavy nuclei, and (iii) the subsequent dissolution of these nuclei into nuclear matter. In this way, the equation of state can be calculated across phase transitions from lower densities (where one dimensional Hartree-Fock suffices) through to uniform nuclear matter without recourse to interpolation techniques between density regimes described by different physical models.