Nuclear Pasta Formation

Understand

The formation of complex nonuniform phases of nuclear matter, known as nuclear pasta, is studied with molecular dynamics simulations containing 51200 nucleons.

• A phenomenological nuclear interaction is used that reproduces the saturation binding energy and density of nuclear matter.
• Systems are prepared at an initial density of 0.10fm$^{-3}$ and then the density is decreased by expanding the simulation volume at different rates to densities of 0.01 fm$^{-3}$ or less.
• An originally uniform system of nuclear matter is observed to form spherical bubbles ("swiss cheese"), hollow tubes, flat plates ("lasagna"), thin rods ("spaghetti") and, finally, nearly spherical nuclei with decreasing density.