Nuclear "pasta" structures in low-density nuclear matter and properties of the neutron-star crust

Okamoto, Minoru*; Maruyama, Toshiki  ; Yabana, Kazuhiro*; Tatsumi, Toshitaka*

In neutron star crust, non-uniform structure of nuclear matter is expected, which is called the "pasta" structure. From the recent studies of giant flares in magnetars, these structures might be related to some observables and physical quantities of the neutron star crust. To investigate the above quantities, we have numerically explored the pasta structures with a fully three-dimensional geometry and have studied the properties of low-density nuclear matter, based on the relativistic mean-field model and the Thomas-Fermi approximation. We have observed typical pasta structures for fixed proton number-fraction and droplet and rod for cold catalyzed matter. We have also explored the crystalline configuration of "pasta". Although it was believed that spherical nuclei (droplets) form a body-centred cubic lattice as a ground state, we have shown that a face-centred cubic lattice is energetically more favored than body-centred cubic lattice near the transition density to rod.