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Neutron-Phonon Interaction in Neutron Star Crusts

Armen Sedrakian

astro-pharXiv:astro-ph/9801239

Abstract

The phonon spectrum of Coulomb lattice in neutron star crusts above the neutron drip density is affected by the interaction with the ambient neutron Fermi-liquid. For the values of the neutron-phonon coupling constant in the range 0.1 λ 1 an appreciable renormalization of the phonon spectrum occurs which can lead to a lattice instability manifested in an exponential growth of the density fluctuations. The BCS phonon exchange mechanism of superconductivity leads to neutron pairing with a gap in the neutron excitation spectrum comparable to that due to the direct nuclear interaction.

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