A Survey of Nuclear Pasta in the Intermediate Density Regime: Structure Functions for Neutrino Scattering

TL;DR

This survey reviews how nuclear pasta structures in dense astrophysical matter influence neutrino scattering, highlighting their significant impact on neutrino transport and implications for neutron star cooling and supernova modeling.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive analysis of nuclear pasta's effects on neutrino interactions using density functional theory, comparing with uniform matter results.

Findings

Nuclear pasta structures significantly enhance elastic scattering.

Inelastic scattering cross sections are reduced in pasta matter.

Elastic coherent scattering increases dramatically in pasta phases.

Abstract

Background: Nuclear pasta matter, emerging due to the competition between the long-range Coulomb force and the short-range strong force, is believed to be present in astrophysical scenarios, such as neutron stars and core-collapse supernovae. Its structure can have a high impact e.g. on neutrino transport or the tidal deformability of neutron stars. Purpose: We investigate the impact of nuclear pasta on neutrino interactions and compare the results to uniform matter. Method: We calculate the elastic and inelastic static structure factors for nuclear pasta matter using density functional theory (DFT), which contain the main nuclear input for neutrino scattering. Results: Each pasta structure leaves a unique imprint in the elastic structure factor and it is largely enhanced. The inelastic structure factors are very similar for all configurations. Conclusion: Nuclear pasta has a noticeable impact on neutrino neutral-current scattering opacities. While for inelastic reactions the cross section is reduced, the elastic coherent scattering increases dramatically. The effect can be of importance for the cooling of neutron stars as well as for core-collapse supernova models.