From crystalline to exotic arrangements of matter in neutron star crusts

Abstract

We investigate the occurrence of exotic structures in the outermost layers of neutron stars within the framework of a microscopic model describing the nucleonic dynamics through a time-dependent mean field approach at around zero temperature. In this model starting from an initial crystalline lattice of nuclei at subnuclear densities the system evolves and self-organizes in various low-lying energy structures without assumption of final shapes. These structures are studied in terms of a density phase diagram. We investigate their sensitivity to the isotopic composition and to the symmetries of the lattice.