Quantum M.C. study of strongly correlated Fermions: neutron matter, neutron stars, and cold atoms

Recent advances in experiments and theory of cold atomic gases, and in neutron star observations, yield important new insights on the quation of state of neutron matter. At low densities neutron matter is a strongly paired Fermi system similar to cold atoms that are very manageable in experiments. The properties of inhomogeneous neutron matter at low to moderate densities are important to describe the neutron star crust, and we show how microscopic calculations of confined neutrons can put severe constraints on density functionals used to describe heavy nuclei and the crust. At higher densities the EOS of neutron matter plays a critical role in determining the mass-radius relationship for neutron stars. We show how microscopic calculations of neutron matter make clear predictions for the relation between the isospin asymmetry energy and its density dependence, and the maximum mass and radius for a neutron star.