Curvature effect on nuclear 'pasta': Is it helpful for gyroid appearance?

Journal Article · Wed Jun 15 04:00:00 EDT 2011 · Physical Review. C, Nuclear Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVC.83.065811· OSTI ID:21502833

Nakazato, Ken'ichiro ^[1]; Iida, Kei ^[2]; Oyamatsu, Kazuhiro ^[3]

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1. Department of Physics, Faculty of Science and Technology, Tokyo University of Science, Yamazaki 2641, Noda, Chiba 278-8510 (Japan)
2. Department of Natural Science, Kochi University, 2-5-1 Akebono-cho, Kochi 780-8520 (Japan)
3. Department of Human Informatics, Aichi Shukutoku University, Nagakute-Katahira 9, Nagakute, Aichi 480-1197 (Japan)

In supernova cores and neutron star crusts, nuclei are thought to deform to rodlike and slablike shapes, which are often called nuclear pasta. We study the equilibrium properties of the nuclear pasta by using a liquid-drop model with curvature corrections. It is confirmed that the curvature effect acts to lower the transition densities between different shapes. We also examine the gyroid structure, which was recently suggested as a different type of nuclear pasta by analogy with the polymer systems. The gyroid structure investigated in this paper is approximately formulated as an extension of the periodic minimal surface whose mean curvature vanishes. In contrast to our expectations, we find, from the present approximate formulation, that the curvature corrections act to slightly disfavor the appearance of the gyroid structure. By comparing the energy corrections in the gyroid phase and the hypothetical phases composed of d-dimensional spheres, where d is a general dimensionality, we show that the gyroid is unlikely to belong to a family of the generalized dimensional spheres.

• OSTI ID: 21502833
• Journal Information: Physical Review. C, Nuclear Physics, Journal Name: Physical Review. C, Nuclear Physics Journal Issue: 6 Vol. 83; ISSN 0556-2813; ISSN PRVCAN
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS
APPROXIMATIONS
CALCULATION METHODS
CORRECTIONS
DENSITY
EQUILIBRIUM
LIQUID DROP MODEL
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
MATTER
NEUTRON STARS
NUCLEAR MATTER
NUCLEAR MODELS
NUCLEI
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
POLYMERS
SPHERES
STARS
SURFACES