Impact of strong magnetic fields on the inner crust of neutron stars

TL;DR

This study investigates how extremely strong magnetic fields influence the structure and phase transitions in the inner crust of neutron stars, revealing significant effects at fields exceeding 10^{18} G.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed analysis of magnetic field effects on neutron star crust phases using relativistic mean field and Thomas-Fermi models, highlighting new insights at ultra-strong fields.

Findings

Magnetic fields below 10^{17} G have negligible effects.

Fields above 10^{18} G significantly lower pasta phase onset densities.

Nucleon and electron density distributions are markedly altered at high magnetic fields.

Abstract

We study the impact of strong magnetic fields on the pasta phases that are expected to exist in the inner crust of neutron stars. We employ the relativistic mean field model to describe the nucleon interaction and use the self-consistent Thomas-Fermi approximation to calculate the nonuniform matter in neutron star crust. The properties of pasta phases and crust-core transition are examined. It is found that as the magnetic field strength $B$ is less than $10^{17}$ G, the effects of magnetic field are not evident comparing with the results without magnetic field. As $B$ is stronger than $10^{18}$ G, the onset densities of pasta phases and crust-core transition density decrease significantly, and the density distributions of nucleons and electrons are also changed obviously.