Modeling the Crust-Core Transition in Neutron Stars

The so-called "pasta" phases of nuclear matter occur at the bottom of the inner crust of neutron stars and in collapsing stellar cores, and in both cases mediate the transition from non-uniform to uniform nuclear matter. They consist of exotic nuclear structures; teh canonical picture involves cylinderical, planar, cylindrical bubble, and spherical bubble nuclear geometries. We examine the dependence on the nuclear symmetry energy of the range of densities in which the "pasta" geometries occur and of the transition to uniform matter using the 3D-Hartree-Fock method, and discuss the implications for crust phenomenology.