Understanding nuclear "pasta": current status and future prospects

Abstract

In cores of supernovae and crusts of neutron stars, nuclei can adopt interesting shapes, such as rods or slabs, etc., which are referred to as nuclear "pasta." In recent years, we have studied the pasta phases focusing on their dynamical aspects with a quantum molecular dynamic (QMD) approach. In this article, we review these works. We also focus on the treatment of the Coulomb interaction.

Comments: 10 pages, 5 figures, to appear in the Proceedings of the Tours Symposium on Nuclear Physics VI (TOURS 2006)