arXiv subjects

Michael Urban

Publications and source records attributed to Michael Urban.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Charged current neutrino processes in hot nuclear matter with a recent Skyrme parametrization constrained by microscopic calculations

Neutrino processes are important in the modeling of supernova explosions, proto-neutron star evolution, and binary neutron star mergers. We study neutrino production and absorption in proto-neutron star and supernova matter and direct Urca neutrino emission of neutron star matter in the framework of the random phase approximation (RPA). As interactions, we employ the recent extended Skyrme parametrization Sky3s whose effective masses and spin-dependent terms were adjusted to microscopic calculations, and the SLy4 parametrization that was used in previous calculations of neutrino rates. The rates obtained for Sky3s differ from those for SLy4 by up to one order of magnitude for some processes and energy regions. We also determine the electron, muon, and proton fractions that lead to a stationary composition of matter for a density above the direct Urca threshold, and find that with Sky3s the standard $\beta$ equilibrium condition is not as badly violated at finite temperature as predicted in the literature. There are also minor differences between the full RPA and the common Landau approximation, but they are probably not significant for astrophysical simulations. We conclude that it would be worthwhile to repeat the calculation of neutrino rates for the use in astrophysical simulations, and the corresponding simulations, with several and better constrained interactions than SLy4, such as Sky3s.

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arXiv2026

Hartree shift and pairing gap in ultracold Fermi gases in the framework of low-momentum interactions

In this paper we consider a two-component gas of fermions on the BCS side of the BCS-BEC crossover at zero temperature. We use a momentum dependent interaction that reproduces the s-wave scattering phase shifts of a contact interaction up to a momentum cutoff that is scaled with the Fermi momentum. Using a diagrammatic formulation of Bogoliubov many-body perturbation theory, suitably augmented by self-consistency conditions, we obtain the Hartree shift and the pairing gap to third order. In the weak-coupling regime, our results are not only well-converged but also agree with the well-established Gor'kov-Melik-Barkhudarov corrections for the gap and the Galitskii result for the Hartree shift. Near the unitary regime, our results for the Nambu-Gor'kov self-energy are less converged, but there is still reasonable agreement with experiments as well as with quantum Monte-Carlo results. Perspectives for improvements and applications of this approach to neutron matter are discussed.

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arXiv2025

Superfluid fraction in the crystal phase of the inner crust of neutron stars

In the most extended layer of the inner crust of neutron stars, nuclear matter is believed to form a crystal of clusters immersed in a superfluid neutron gas. Here we analyze this phase of matter within fully self-consistent Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov calculations using Skyrme-type energy density functionals for the mean field and a separable interaction in the pairing channel. The periodicity of the lattice is taken into account using Bloch boundary conditions, in order to describe the interplay between band structure and superfluidity. A relative flow between the clusters and the surrounding neutron gas is introduced in a time-independent way. As a consequence, the complex order parameter develops a phase, and in the rest frame of the superfluid one finds a counterflow between neutrons inside and outside the clusters. The neutron superfluid fraction is computed from the resulting current. Our results indicate that at densities above 0.03 fm$^{-3}$, more than 90% of the neutrons are effectively superfluid, independently of the detailed choice of the interaction, cluster charge, and lattice geometry. This fraction is only slightly lower than the one obtained recently within linear response theory on top of the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer approximation, and it approaches the hydrodynamic limit for strong pairing. As a consequence, it is likely that the inner crust alone can provide a sufficient superfluid angular momentum reservoir to explain pulsar glitches.

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arXiv2025

Superfluid density in linear response theory : pulsar glitches from the inner crust of neutron stars

The question of whether there are enough superfluid neutrons in the inner crust of neutron stars to explain pulsar glitches remains a topic of debate. Previous band structure calculations suggest that the entrainment effect significantly reduces the superfluid density. In this letter, a new derivation of the BCS expression for the superfluid density is given. We compute it in the superfluid band theory framework through linear response theory, for a small relative velocity between superfluid and normal components, under the assumption that the pairing gap in the rest frame of the superfluid is constant and not affected by the perturbation. Our result suggests that a formula extensively used in neutron star physics is incomplete. Numerical evaluations for two realistic configurations reveal that the previously neglected contribution drastically alters the picture of the superfluid reservoir in the inner crust of neutron stars, suggesting that about 90% of the neutrons are effectively superfluid.

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arXiv2025

New Skyrme parametrizations to describe finite nuclei and neutron star matter with realistic effective masses. II. Adjusting the spin-dependent terms

Many common Skyrme functionals present ferromagnetic instabilities or unrealistic density dependence of the spin-dependent Landau parameters. To solve these problems, we consider the Skyrme interaction as a density-functional rather than a density-dependent two-body force. This allows us to adjust the spin-dependent terms of the new extended Skyrme functionals of our previous paper [M. Duan and M. Urban, Phys. Rev. C 110, 065806 (2024)] independently without altering the properties of spin saturated matter. The parameters of the spin-dependent terms are determined by fitting the Landau parameters $G_0$ and $G'_0$ in neutron matter and symmetric nuclear matter and the effective-mass splitting of up and down particles in spin polarized matter to the results of microscopic calculations. Using the new parametrizations, called Sky3s and Sky4s, the spin-related properties of nuclear matter are in good agreement with the microscopic results. As an application, we compute response functions and neutrino scattering rates of neutron-star matter with the new functionals having realistic effective masses and Landau parameters.

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arXiv2024

Induced three-neutron interactions with low cutoffs for dilute neutron matter

The properties of dilute neutron matter are mostly determined by the s-wave two-body (2N) interaction, while three-body (3N) interactions are suppressed by the Pauli principle. In a previous work, we showed that it can be advantageous to use renormalization group based effective interactions with cutoffs scaled with the Fermi momentum, especially at low densities. In that case, induced 3N interactions may become important. In this work, we compute the 3N interaction induced by the similarity renormalization group flow of the s-wave 2N interaction. We work in the momentum-space hyperspherical partial wave basis and investigate its convergence properties. Then we study the effect of the induced 3N interaction on the equation of state of dilute neutron matter. We observe that the cutoff dependence of the equation of state is strongly reduced when the effect of induced 3N interaction is included.

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arXiv2024

Superfluid fraction in the rod phase of the inner crust of neutron stars

The rod phase as it is expected in the bottom layers of neutron-star crusts is analyzed within the Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov framework. In order to well describe the interplay between band structure and superfluidity, periodicity of the lattice is taken into account using Bloch boundary conditions. A relative flow between the rods and the surrounding neutron gas is introduced in a time-independent way. This induces a non-trivial phase of the complex order parameter, leading to a counterflow between neutrons inside and outside the rods. With the resulting current, we compute the actual neutron superfluid fraction. For the latter our results are significantly larger than previous ones obtained in normal band theory, indicating that the normal band theory overestimates the entrainment effect.

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arXiv2024

New Skyrme parametrizations to describe finite nuclei and neutron star matter with realistic effective masses

The phenomenological Skyrme energy density functional theory is one of the most popular theories for dealing with finite nuclei and infinite nuclear matter, including neutron star matter. However, the density dependence of the effective masses of common Skyrme parametrizations is completely different from the one found in microscopic calculations. This can have drastic consequences. For instance, in a recent study we reported that in many Skyrme functionals, the neutron Fermi velocity exceeds the speed of light at densities that exist in neutron-star cores. To solve this problem, we try to construct new Skyrme parametrizations by including constraints from microscopic calculations of the effective mass in addition to binding energies and charge radii of finite nuclei and different microscopic equations of state of pure neutron matter. We give the parameters of the new Skyrme forces and show that our new effective interactions can successfully describe properties of finite nuclei and nuclear matter (including pure neutron matter, symmetric nuclear matter, and neutron star matter).

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arXiv2023

Effect of the equation of state for dilute neutron matter on the composition of the inner crust of neutron stars

The composition of the inner crust of neutron stars is usually studied using phenomenological interactions such as Skyrme energy-density functionals. But most of these functionals do not agree well with ab-initio calculations of very dilute neutron matter. In this work, we study the inner crust of neutron stars in the model of phase coexistence of dense neutron-rich nuclear clusters and dilute neutron gas, and we investigate how employing a realistic microscopic equation of state to the neutron gas alters the composition. Our results indicate that with a functional that reproduces the correct equation of state of neutron matter at moderate densities, one can obtain a good description of the crust even if the functional does not have the correct behavior at extremely low density.

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arXiv2023

Superfluid fraction in the slab phase of the inner crust of neutron stars

An analysis of the slab phase as it is expected in the innermost layer of neutron-star crusts is performed within the Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov framework. We take the periodicity of the slabs into account using Bloch boundary conditions, in order to well describe the interplay between the band structure and superfluidity. We introduce a relative flow between the slabs and the surrounding neutron gas in a time-independent way. This induces a non-trivial phase of the complex order parameter, leading to a counterflow between neutrons inside and outside the slabs. With the resulting current, we compute the actual neutron superfluid fraction. For the latter our results are slightly larger than previous ones obtained in normal band theory, suggesting that normal band theory overestimates the entrainment effect.

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arXiv2023

Corrections to Local Density Approximation for superfluid trapped fermionic atoms from the Wigner-Kirkwood $\hbar$ expansion

A semiclassical second-order differential equation for the inhomogeneous local gap $\Delta(r)$ is derived from a strict second-order $\hbar$ expansion of the anomalous pairing tensor and compared with a similar equation given by Simonucci et al. The second-order normal density matrix is given as well. Several extra gradient terms are revealed. Second-order expressions at finite temperature are given for the first time. The corresponding Ginzburg-Landau equation is presented and it is shown that, compared to the equation of Baranov and Petrov, an extra second-order gradient term is present. Applications to the pairing gap in cold atoms in a harmonic trap are presented.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2023

Energy and Angle Dependence of Neutrino Scattering Rates in Proto-Neutron Star and Supernova Matter within Skyrme RPA

Supernova explosions are the most powerful neutrino sources. The neutrino emission is also the dominating cooling mechanism for a proto-neutron star, whose interior is mainly composed of extremely dense and hot nuclear matter. Neutrino transport is an essential part of the simulation of these phenomena, and modern codes are able to implement inelastic neutrino scattering and also to some extent its angle distribution. We therefore study the energy and angle dependence of neutrino scattering rates in proto-neutron star and supernova matter with the full Skyrme RPA response functions. We confirm earlier findings obtained in the Landau approximation that the RPA reduces neutrino scattering, but the detailed differential scattering rates in hot and dense matter depend sensitively on the adopted interaction. The scattering angle distribution is different for different interactions because it depends strongly on the neutron Fermi velocity. We also find that many Skyrme interactions present an unphysical feature that the Fermi velocity of neutrons exceeds the speed of light already at relatively low densities.

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arXiv2022

Equation of state of superfluid neutron matter with low-momentum interactions

In this work, we calculate the ground state energy of pure neutron matter using the renormalization group based low-momentum effective interaction $V_{\text{low-}k}$ in Bogoliubov many-body perturbation theory (BMBPT), which is a perturbative expansion around the Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov (HFB) ground state. In order to capture the low-density behavior of neutron matter, it turns out to be better to use a density dependent cutoff in the $V_{\text{low-}k}$ interaction. Perturbative corrections to the HFB energy up to third order are included. We find that at low densities corresponding to the inner crust of neutron stars, the HFB state that includes pairing is a better starting point for perturbation expansion. It is observed that including the higher order perturbative corrections, the cutoff dependence of the ground state energy is reduced.

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arXiv2020

BCS-BEC Crossover Effects and Pseudogap in Neutron Matter

Due to the large neutron-neutron scattering length, dilute neutron matter resembles the unitary Fermi gas, which lies half-way in the crossover from the BCS phase of weakly coupled Cooper pairs to the Bose-Einstein condensate of dimers. We discuss crossover effects in analogy with the T-matrix theory used in the physics of ultracold atoms, which we generalize to the case of a non-separable finite-range interaction. A problem of the standard Nozieres-Schmitt-Rink approach and different ways to solve it are discussed. It is shown that in the strong-coupling regime, the spectral function exhibits a pseudo-gap at temperatures above the critical temperature T_c. The effect of the correlated density on the density dependence of T_c is found to be rather weak, but a possibly important effect due to the reduced quasiparticle weight is identified.

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arXiv2020

Long-wavelength phonons in the crystalline and pasta phases of neutron-star crusts

We study the long-wavelength excitations of the inner crust of neutron stars, considering three phases: cubic crystal at low densities, rods and plates near the core-crust transition. To describe the phonons, we write an effective Lagrangian density in terms of the coarse-grained phase of the neutron superfluid gap and of the average displacement field of the clusters. The kinetic energy, including the entrainment of the neutron gas by the clusters, is obtained within a superfluid hydrodynamics approach. The potential energy is determined from a model where clusters and neutron gas are considered in phase coexistence, augmented by the elasticity of the lattice due to Coulomb and surface effects. All three phases show strong anisotropy, i.e., angle dependence of the phonon velocities. Consequences for the specific heat at low temperature are discussed.

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arXiv2019

Application of renormalized RPA to polarized Fermi gases

We consider a spin imbalanced Fermi gas at zero temperature in the normal phase on the BCS side of the BCS-BEC crossover and around unitarity. We compute the critical polarization for pairing, the correlated occupation numbers and the contact in an extension of particle-particle RPA (also called non self-consistent \textit{T}-matrix approach or ladder approximation). The so-called renormalized RPA consists in computing the \textit{T} matrix with self-consistently determined occupation numbers. The occupation numbers are determined either by keeping the self-energy only to first order or by resumming the Dyson equation. In this way, the result for the critical polarization, strongly overestimated in standard RPA, is clearly improved. We also discuss some problems of this approach.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2018

The BCS-BEC crossover: From ultra-cold Fermi gases to nuclear systems

This report adresses topics and questions of common interest in the fields of ultra-cold gases and nuclear physics in the context of the BCS-BEC crossover. The BCS-BEC crossover has recently been realized experimentally, and essentially in all of its aspects, with ultra-cold Fermi gases. This realization, in turn, has raised the interest of the nuclear physics community in the crossover problem, since it represents an unprecedented tool to test fundamental and unanswered questions of nuclear many-body theory. Here, we focus on the several aspects of the BCS-BEC crossover, which are of broad joint interest to both ultra-cold Fermi gases and nuclear matter, and which will likely help to solve in the future some open problems in nuclear physics (concerning, for instance, neutron stars). Similarities and differences occurring in ultra-cold Fermi gases and nuclear matter will then be emphasized, not only about the relative phenomenologies but also about the theoretical approaches to be used in the two contexts. After an introduction to present the key concepts of the BCS-BEC crossover, this report discusses the mean-field treatment of the superfluid phase, both for homogeneous and inhomogeneous systems, as well as for symmetric (spin- or isospin-balanced) and asymmetric (spin- or isospin-imbalanced) matter. Pairing fluctuations in the normal phase are then considered, with their manifestations in thermodynamic and dynamic quantities. The last two Sections provide a more specialized discussion of the BCS-BEC crossover in ultra-cold Fermi gases and nuclear matter, respectively. The separate discussion in the two contexts aims at cross communicating to both communities topics and aspects which, albeit arising in one of the two fields, share a strong common interest.

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arXiv2016

Superfluid hydrodynamics in the inner crust of neutron stars

The inner crust of neutron stars is supposed to be inhomogeneous and composed of dense structures (clusters) that are immersed in a dilute gas of unbound neutrons. Here we consider spherical clusters forming a BCC crystal and cylindrical rods arranged in a hexagonal lattice. We study the relative motion of these dense structures and the neutron gas using superfluid hydrodynamics. Within this approach, which relies on the assumption that Cooper pairs are small compared to the crystalline structures, we find that the entrainment of neutrons by the clusters is very weak since neutrons of the gas can flow through the clusters. Consequently, we obtain a low effective mass of the clusters and a superfluid density that is even higher than the density of unbound neutrons. Consequences for the constraints from glitch observations are discussed.

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