Pions in hot dense matter and their astrophysical implications
- Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA (United States)
Here we study the role of pions in hot dense matter encountered in astrophysics. We find that strong interactions enhance the number density of negatively charged pions and that this enhancement can be calculated reliably for a relevant range of density and temperature by using the virial expansion. We assess the influence of pions and muons on the equation of state (EOS) and weak-interaction rates in hot dense matter. We find that thermal pions increase the proton fraction and soften the EOS. We also find that charged current weak reactions involving pions and muons $$\bar{ν}_ μ + μ^– → π$$ and $$ν_μ + π^– → μ^–$$ make an important contribution to the opacity of muon neutrinos. This could influence the dynamics of core-collapse supernovae and neutron-star mergers. Finally, we note that pion-nucleon reactions can alter the evolution of the proton fraction when weak interactions are not in equilibrium.
- Research Organization:
- Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA (United States); Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR). Scientific Discovery through Advanced Computing (SciDAC); National Science Foundation (NSF)
- Grant/Contract Number:
- FG02-00ER41132; SC0018232; A18-0354-S002; DGE-1762114; FG02- 00ER41132
- OSTI ID:
- 1799998
- Alternate ID(s):
- OSTI ID: 1607817
- Journal Information:
- Physical Review. C, Vol. 101, Issue 3; ISSN 2469-9985
- Publisher:
- American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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