2008/05/16 by X. Roca-Maza, J. Piekarewicz
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Physics and Astronomy · #High-pressure geophysics and materials #Nuclear physics research studies #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #astro-ph #gr-qc #nucl-ex #nucl-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevc.78.025807
published as Phys.Rev.C78:025807,2008 · 21 pages, 8 figures, submitted to Physical Review C
arxiv created 2008/05/16 · openalex publication_date 2008/08/21 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The composition and equation of state of the outer crust of nonaccreting neutron stars is computed by using accurate nuclear mass tables. The main goal of the present study is to understand the impact of the symmetry energy on the structure of the outer crust. First, a simple ``toy model'' is developed to illustrate the competition between the electronic density and the symmetry energy. Then, realistic mass tables are used to show that models with a stiff symmetry energy---those that generate large neutron skins for heavy nuclei---predict a sequence of nuclei in the stellar environment that is more neutron rich than their softer counterparts. This result may be phrased in the form of a correlation: The larger the neutron skin of 208Pb, the more exotic the composition of the outer crust.