Comparison between the Thomas-Fermi and Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov Methods in the Inner Crust of a Neutron Star: The Role of Pairing Correlations

TL;DR

This paper compares the Thomas-Fermi and Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov methods to understand pairing correlations in the neutron star's inner crust, demonstrating their relative accuracy and implications for nuclear matter modeling.

Contribution

It introduces a comparison framework between the Thomas-Fermi and Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov methods, highlighting the role of pairing correlations in neutron star crusts.

Findings

Discrepancies are minimal outside very low-density regions.

Standard mean-field methods are sufficiently accurate for most of the crust.

Pairing correlations significantly influence the crust's chemical composition.

Abstract

We investigated the role of a pairing correlation in the chemical composition of the inner crust of a neutron star with the extended Thomas-Fermi method, using the Strutinsky integral correction. We compare our results with the fully self-consistent Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov approach, showing that the resulting discrepancy, apart from the very low density region, is compatible with the typical accuracy we can achieve with standard mean-field methods.