Prior probability distributions of neutron star crust models

Understand

To make best use of multi-faceted astronomical and nuclear data-sets, probability distributions of neutron star models that can be used to propagate errors consistently from one domain to another are required.

• We take steps toward a consistent model for this purpose, highlight where model inconsistencies occur and assess the resulting model uncertainty.
• Using two distributions of nuclear symmetry energy parameters - one uniform, the other based on pure neutron matter theory, we prepare two ensembles of neutron star inner crust models.
• We use an extended Skyrme energy-density functional within a compressible liquid drop model (CLDM).