Breaking stress of Coulomb crystals in the neutron star crust

TL;DR

This paper investigates the breaking stress of Coulomb crystals in neutron star crusts, analyzing how zero-point and thermal effects influence their stability and maximum stress capacity.

Contribution

It extends previous work by incorporating zero-point and thermal contributions into the analysis of Coulomb crystal breaking stress in neutron star crusts.

Findings

Zero-point effects slightly modify the breaking stress.

Thermal contributions can significantly affect stability.

The study provides refined estimates of crustal breaking stress.

Abstract

It is generally accepted that the Coulomb crystal model can be used to describe matter in the neutron star crust. In [1] we study the properties of deformed Coulomb crystals and how their stability depends on the polarization of the electron background; the breaking stress in the crust $\sigma_{\max}$ at zero temperature was calculated based on the analysis of the electrostatic energy and the phonon spectrum of the Coulomb crystal. In this paper, I briefly discuss the influence of zero-point and thermal contributions on $\sigma_{\max}$.