Modeling Nuclear Pasta and the Transition to Uniform Nuclear Matter with the 3D-Skyrme-Hartree-Fock Method

The first results of a new three-dimensional, finite temperature Skyrme-Hartree-Fock+BCS study of the properties of inhomogeneous nuclear matter at densities and temperatures leading to the transition to uniform nuclear matter are presented. A constraint is placed on the two independent components of the quadrupole moment in order to self-consistently explore the shape phase space of nuclear configurations. The scheme employed naturally allows effects such as (i) neutron drip, which results in an external neutron gas, (ii) the variety of exotic nuclear shapes expected for extremely neutron heavy nuclei, and (iii) the subsequent dissolution of these nuclei into nuclear matter. In this way, the equation of state can be calculated across phase transitions from lower densities (where one dimensional Hartree-Fock suffices) through to uniform nuclear matter without recourse to interpolation techniques between density regimes described by different physical models.