Systematic analysis of symmetry energy effects in the neutron star crust properties

TL;DR

This paper investigates how different models of nuclear symmetry energy affect neutron star crust properties, using Bezier curves to explore various density-dependent behaviors.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method using Bezier curves to systematically analyze the impact of symmetry energy shape variations on neutron star crust characteristics.

Findings

Symmetry energy shape significantly influences crust composition.

Different density behaviors lead to observable differences in crustal properties.

Bezier curve approach provides a flexible framework for modeling symmetry energy.

Abstract

The functional form of the nuclear symmetry energy in the whole range of densities relevant for the neutron stars is still unknown. Discrepancies concern both the low as well as the high density behaviour of this function. By use of Bezier curves three different families of the symmetry energy shapes, relevant for different density range were introduced. Their consequences for the crustal properties of neutron stars are presented.