arXiv subjects

Nobutoshi Yasutake

Publications and source records attributed to Nobutoshi Yasutake.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Cooling of Hybrid Stars with a 2SC+$ $ Phase

Recently, Fujimoto, Fukushima & Weise (2019) have proposed a new colour-superconductive state, 2SC+$ $ phase, which can be smoothly connected to the low-density baryon superfluidity in contrast to the 2SC phase. In this scenario, the neutron ${}^3P_2$ superfluidity on the low-density side of the phase transition is inherited by unpaired $d$-quarks in the 2SC phase on the high-density side. Since this could be realized in hybrid stars (neutron stars containing hadronic and quark matter), the 2SC+$ $ phase may change the properties of neutron stars compared to the traditional 2SC phase. In this work, we study the thermal evolution of hybrid stars with the 2SC+$ $ phase for the first time. We find that NSs with the 2SC+$ $ phase become hotter than those with the 2SC phase, and are close to the CFL phase. The ${}^{3}P_2$ superfluidity plays an important role in cooling curves with not the 2SC but 2SC+$ $ phases due to the suppression of quark $\beta$ decay. We therefore point out that, if the scenario of 2SC+$ $ phase is true, it could be specified through low-temperature observations such as Vela, 3C58, Vela Jr., and Vela-like pulsar.

nucl-th↗

arXiv2026

Magnetized Coulomb crystals in neutron star crusts

We investigate the properties of magnetized Coulomb crystals in neutron star crusts using a fully three-dimensional geometry with periodic boundary conditions. The electron density profiles are fixed via the Thomas-Fermi approximation, and the nonuniform magnetic fields are treated with the equivalent magnetic charge method. The study focuses on Coulomb crystals composed of $^{12}$C at an ion number density $n_d = 10^{-9}\ \text{fm}^{-3}$, subjected to various external magnetic fields. Nuclei are described by a Gaussian wave function, where the width $b$ encapsulates the effects of zero-point ion vibrations and finite temperature. Our findings show that the crystal softens as $b$ increases. The Madelung constant $K_M$ fluctuates with the external magnetic field $B_{z0}$ at $B_{z0}\leq 3\times 10^{14}$ G. At higher field strengths, $K_M$ increases until $B_{z0} \approx 3\times 10^{15}$ G and then decreases. The body-centered cubic (BCC) lattice is slightly more stable than the face-centered cubic (FCC) lattice when $B_{z0} < 3\times 10^{15}$ G, whereas the FCC lattice may become more stable at larger $B_{z0}$. The elastic constants $c_{11}-c_{12}$ and $c_{44}$ are computed and tabulated, which grow with $B_{z0}$ for $3\times 10^{14}\ \mathrm{G}\lesssim B_{z0}\lesssim 2\times 10^{15}$ G and then decline toward zero as the field strength increases further. For $B_{z0}\gtrsim 10^{16}$ G, it becomes difficult to identify a stable lattice structure. These results provide valuable insights into the role of strong magnetic fields in shaping the properties of Coulomb crystals in compact stars.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2026

Thermal Spin Polarization Driven by Nuclear Spin-Orbit Coupling in Neutron Star Pasta

We discuss anomalous spin polarization on the surface of nuclear pasta in a neutron star, driven by a nuclear spin-orbit interaction. We present an effective two-band model of surface-localized neutrons near the nuclear pasta. The central point is the emergence of a Rashba-type spin-orbit hybridization generated by the neutron--nucleus spin-orbit force in the presence of the strong density gradient normal to the pasta surface. Starting from a single-particle Hamiltonian with a central potential and a standard nuclear spin-orbit interaction, we show that the surface spin polarization occurs due to the thermal inhomogeneity even in the absence of a magnetic field. Our study links neutron-star physics and solid-state spintronics and would contribute to understanding the interplay between spin dynamics and strong magnetic fields.

nucl-th↗

arXiv2026

Multiquark clustering in neutron-star matter from color-spin molecular dynamics

We study the equation of state of neutron-star matter with color-spin molecular dynamics. The calculation includes the internal color and spin degrees of freedom and their time evolution. The matter composition, including strangeness under $\beta$ equilibrium, is determined by energy minimization. We find two main trends. First, within the present color-spin molecular dynamics framework and under the adopted clustering criterion along the stable neutron-star branch, isolated quarklike configurations do not appear; instead, color-magnetic interactions favor the self-consistent formation of multiquark clusters. Within the same criterion, the cluster-size distribution is concentrated at quark numbers that are multiples of three, corresponding to integer baryon numbers. Second, relative to the conventional no-$K^*$ baseline, the interaction between strange and light quarks has a strong impact on neutron-star radii. This suggests that future radius measurements, together with phenomenological information on the strangeness-onset density, may help constrain flavor-sector interactions involving strangeness.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2025

Nonstrange and strange quark matter at finite temperature within modified NJL model and protoquark stars

We extend the modified Nambu-Jona-Lasinio (NJL) model -- incorporating exchange interactions via the Fierz transformation -- to finite temperatures in both two- and three-flavor scenarios, and investigate the properties of protoquark stars in $\beta$-equilibrium. Our results show that increasing the strength of exchange interactions, characterized by the parameter $\alpha$, changes the chiral phase transition from first-order to crossover. We examine the effects of finite temperature, lepton fraction, and exchange interactions on the equation of state (EOS). We find that, in the crossover regime, the EOS is significantly stiffer than in the first-order case due to the substantial contribution of repulsive interactions in the exchange channels, while it remains relatively insensitive to variations in temperature and lepton fraction. Imposing the thermodynamic consistency, which requires the minimum of free energy per baryon $f / \rho_B$ occurs at zero pressure, further constrains the minimum value of vacuum pressure.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2025

Gyromagnetic Angular Momentum Interconversion in Neutron Stars

We propose a novel mechanism for angular momentum (AM) exchange between the crust and core of a neutron star (NS) via the gyromagnetic effect. Using extended hydrodynamics, we model the star by incorporating macroscopic AM and microscopic AM originating from neutron orbital and spin AM. We reveal that macroscopic dynamics in the crust can inform microscopic AM in the core leading to neutron spin polarization, and offer alternative scenario of (anti-)glitches. This work highlights the overlooked multi-scale AM interconversions in NS physics, paving the way for gyromagnetic astrophysics.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2024

Elastic properties of nuclear pasta in neutron-star crusts

Based on the relativistic mean field (RMF) model with Thomas-Fermi approximation, we investigate the elastic properties of neutron star matter. The elastic constants are estimated by introducing deformations on the nuclear pasta structures in $β$-equilibrium, where various crystalline configurations are considered in a fully three-dimensional geometry without the Wigner-Seitz approximation. Two scenarios with different symmetry energy slope ($L = 41.34$ and 89.39 MeV) are examined, where the the elastic constants can vary by ten times. By fitting to the numerical results, we improve the analytic formulae for the elastic properties of nuclear pasta by introducing damping factors.

nucl-th↗

arXiv2024

Mixed phases of compact star matter in a unified mean-field approach

Based on an extended NJL model that treats baryons as clusters of quarks, we investigate the properties and microscopic structures of mixed phases for various types of first-order phase transitions in a unified manner, where the model parameters are fixed by reproducing nuclear matter properties and the binding energies of finite nuclei. In particular, based on the Thomas-Fermi approximation, we investigate the mixed phases arise from the liquid-gas phase transition of nuclear matter, chiral phase transition, and deconfinement phase transition in dense stellar matter adopting spherical and cylindrical approximations for the Wigner-Seitz cells. It is found that the geometrical structures do not emerge for chiral phases transition, while the droplet, rod, slab, tube, and bubble phases emerge sequentially as density increases for the liquid-gas and deconfinement phase transitions. Additional attractive interactions between strange quark matter and hyperons are observed as the deconfinement phase transition is entangled with chiral phase transition of $s$ quarks. The results obtained here should be useful to understand the properties and structures of dense stellar matter throughout compact stars and in particular the matter state in the core regions. Meanwhile, more extensive investigations in a three-dimensional geometry with large box sizes are necessary for our future study.

nucl-th↗

arXiv2024

Crossover equation of state based on color-molecular-dynamics

The equation of State for dense matter is studied with color molecular dynamics, in which hadron matter and quark matter are automatically distinguished only from quark color state. The quark-quark interactions are optimized to be consistent with saturation properties: symmetric energy, $L-$parameter, and incompressibility around nuclear density. In the calculations, the degrees of freedom of colors are solved at each numerical step, although the flavors are fixed as up or down quarks. The resultant mass-radius relations also satisfy the observational constraints such as the gravitational wave observations, NICER, and ``{\it the two-solar mass observations}" of neutron stars. In this model with the allowed parameter range, deconfined quark matter appears in the core of neutron stars via crossover. Although the current constraints from the observations are not enough to conclude whether quark matter appears at high-density region, our method would help to understand high-density material properties inside neutron stars in the future.

nucl-th↗

arXiv2023

Exploring $^3P_0$ Superfluid in Dilute Spin-Polarized Neutron Matter

We explore the theoretical possibility of $^3P_0$ neutron superfluid in dilute spin-polarized neutron matter, which may be relevant to the crust region of a magnetized neutron star. In such a dilute regime where the neutron Fermi energy is less than 1 MeV, the $^1S_0$ neutron superfluid can be suppressed by a strong magnetic field of the compact star. In the low-energy limit relevant for dilute neutron matter, the $^3P_0$ interaction is stronger than the $^3P_2$ one which is believed to induce the triplet superfluid in the core. We present the ground-state phase diagram of dilute neutron matter with respect to the magnetic field and numerically estimate the critical temperature of the $^3P_0$ neutron superfluid, which is found to exceed $10^7$ K.

nucl-th↗

arXiv2023

Elastic properties of nuclear pasta in a fully three-dimensional geometry

Realistic estimations on the elastic properties of neutron star matter are carried out with a large strain ($\varepsilon \lesssim 0.5$) in the framework of relativistic-mean-field model with Thomas-Fermi approximation, where various crystalline configurations are considered in a fully three-dimensional geometry with reflection symmetry. Our calculation confirms the validity of assuming Coulomb crystals for the droplet phase above neutron drip density, which nonetheless does not work at large densities since the elastic constants are found to be decreasing after reaching their peaks. Similarly, the analytic formulae derived in the incompressible liquid-drop model give excellent description for the rod phase at small densities, which overestimates the elastic constants at larger densities. For slabs, due to the negligence on the variations of their thicknesses, the analytic formulae from liquid-drop model agree qualitatively but not quantitatively with our numerical estimations. By fitting to the numerical results, these analytic formulae are improved by introducing dampening factors. The impacts of nuclear symmetry energy are examined adopting two parameter sets, corresponding to the slope of symmetry energy $L = 41.34$ and 89.39 MeV. Even with the uncertainties caused by the anisotropy in polycrystallines, the elastic properties of neutron star matter obtained with $L = 41.34$ and 89.39 MeV are distinctively different, results in detectable differences in various neutron star activities.

nucl-th↗

arXiv2022

A Lagrangian construction of rotating stars

We present a new formulation for numerically obtaining axisymmetric equilibrium structures of rotating stars in two spatial dimensions. With a view to apply it to the secular evolution of rotating stars, we base it on the Lagrangian description, i.e., we solve the force-balance equations to find the spatial positions of fluid elements endowed individually with a mass, specific entropy and angular momentum. The system of nonlinear equations obtained by finite-differencing the basic equations are solved with the W4 method, which is a new multi-dimensional root-finding scheme of our own devising. We augment it with a remapping scheme to avoid distortions of the Lagrangian coordinates. In this first one of a series of papers, we will give a detailed description of these methods initially. We then present the results of some test calculations, which include the construction of both rapidly rotating barotropic and baroclinic equilibrium states. We gauge their accuracies quantitatively with some diagnostic quantities as well as via comparisons with the counterparts obtained with an Eulerian code. For a demonstrative purpose, we apply the code to a toy-model cooling calculation of a rotating white dwarf.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2022

Nuclear pasta structures at high temperatures

We investigate nuclear pasta structures at high temperatures in the framework of relativistic mean field model with Thomas-Fermi approximation. Typical pasta structures (droplet, rod, slab, tube, and bubble) are obtained, which form various crystalline configurations. The properties of those nuclear pastas are examined in a three-dimensional geometry with reflection symmetry, where the optimum lattice constants are fixed by reproducing the droplet/bubble density that minimizes the free energy adopting spherical or cylindrical approximations for Wigner-Seitz cells. It is found that different crystalline structures can evolve into each other via volume conserving deformations. For fixed densities and temperatures, the differences of the free energies per baryon of nuclear pasta in various shapes and lattice structures are typically on the order of tens of keV, suggesting the possible coexistence of those structures. As temperature increases, the thermodynamic fluctuations are expected to disrupt the long-range ordering in nuclear pasta structures. We then estimate the critical conditions for nuclear pasta to become disordered and behave like liquid, which are found to be sensitive to the densities, temperatures, proton fractions, and nuclear shapes. If we further increase temperature, eventually the nonuniform structures of nuclear pasta become unstable and are converted into uniform nuclear matter. The phase diagrams of nuclear matter are then estimated, which should be useful for understanding the evolutions of neutron stars, supernova dynamics, and binary neutron star mergers.

nucl-th↗

arXiv2022

Singularity-Avoiding Multi-Dimensional Root-Finder

We proposed in this paper a new method, which we named the W4 method, to solve nonlinear equation systems. It may be regarded as an extension of the Newton-Raphson~(NR) method to be used when the method fails. Indeed our method can be applied not only to ordinary problems with non-singular Jacobian matrices but also to problems with singular Jacobians, which essentially all previous methods that employ the inversion of the Jacobian matrix have failed to solve. In this article, we demonstrate that (i) our new scheme can define a non-singular iteration map even for those problems by utilizing the singular value decomposition, (ii) a series of vectors in the new iteration map converges to the right solution under a certain condition, (iii) the standard two-dimensional problems in the literature that no single method proposed so far has been able to solve completely are all solved by our new method.

math.NA↗

arXiv2022

A novel formulation for the evolution of relativistic rotating stars

We present a new formulation to construct numerically equilibrium configurations of rotating stars in general relativity. Having in mind the application to their quasi static evolutions, we adopt a Lagrangian formulation of our own devising, in which we solve force balance equations to seek for the positions of fluid elements assigned to the grid points, instead of the ordinary Eulerian formulation. Unlike previous works in the literature, we do not employ the first integral of the Euler equation, which is not obtained by an analytic integration in general. We assign a mass, specific angular momentum and entropy to each fluid element in contrast to the previous methods, in which the spatial distribution of the angular velocity or angular momentum is specified. Those distributions are determined after the positions of all fluid elements (or grid points) are derived in our formulation. We solve the large system of algebraic nonlinear equations that are obtained by discretizing the time-independent Euler and Einstein equations in the finite-elements method by using our new multi-dimensional root-finding scheme, named the W4 method. To demonstrate the capability of our new formulation, we construct some rotational configurations both barotropic and baroclinic. We also solve three evolutionary sequences that mimic the cooling, mass-loss, and mass-accretion as simple toy models.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2022

Determination of symmetry energy from experimental and observational constraints; prediction on CREX

Taking $r_{\rm skin}^{208}({\rm PREX})=0.33^{+0.16}_{-0.18}~{\rm fm}$ as an experimental constraint and $M_{\rm max}^{\rm NS} \ge 2{\rm M}_{\rm sun}$ as an observational (astrophysical) constraint, we determine an indisputable range for $J$, $L$, $K_{\rm sym}$ defined in Eq.~\eqref{eq-S-sym}. For this purpose, we take a statistical approach. We first accumulate the 206 EoS data from theoretical works and take correlation between $r_{\rm skin}^{208}$ and $L$ for the 206 EoSs, where 7 Gogny EoSs are obtained by our calculations. Since the correlation coefficient is $R = 0.99$, we can regard $L$ as a function of $r_{\rm skin}^{208}$, so that we succeed in deducing an empirical constraint $L=31-161$~MeV from $r_{\rm skin}^{208}({\rm PREX})=0.15-0.49$~fm. For the 47 EoSs satisfying the observational constraint, 46 EoSs satisfy the empirical constraint. The 46 EoSs yield $J=29-44$~MeV, $L= 37-135$~MeV, $K_{\rm sym}=(-137)-(160)$~MeV. The is a primary result. When we take correlation between $r_{\rm skin}^{48}$ and $r_{\rm skin}^{208}$ for the 206 EoSs, $R$ is 0.99. The $r_{\rm skin}^{48}$--$r_{\rm skin}^{208}$ relation allows us to transform $r_{\rm skin}^{208}({\rm PREX})$ into the corresponding data on $r_{\rm skin}^{48}$ In order to estimate a value of $r_{\rm skin}^{48}$ for ongoing CREX, we take the weighted mean and its error of two present data on $r_{\rm skin}^{48}$ and transformed PREX value on $r_{\rm skin}^{48}$. The weighted mean is $r_{\rm skin}^{48}=0.17$~fm. This is a prediction for the central value of CREX.

nucl-th↗

arXiv2021

Relativistic Mean-Field Treatment of Pulsar Kick from Neutrino Propagation in Magnetized Proto-Neutron

We make a perturbative calculation of neutrino scattering and absorption in hot and dense hyperonic neutron-star matter in the presence of a strong magnetic Field. We calculate that the absorption cross-sections in a fully relativistic mean-field theory. We find that there is a remarkable angular dependence, i.e. the neutrino absorption strength is reduced in a direction parallel to the magnetic Field and enhanced in the opposite direction. This asymmetry in the neutrino absorption is estimated to be as much as 2.2 % of the entire neutrino momentum for an interior magnetic Field of 2 x 10^{17} G. The pulsar kick velocities associated with this asymmetry are shown to be comparable to observed velocities.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2021

Nuclear pasta structures and symmetry energy

In the framework of the relativistic mean field model with Thomas-Fermi approximation, we study the structures of low density nuclear matter in a three-dimensional geometry with reflection symmetry. The numerical accuracy and efficiency are improved by expanding the mean fields according to fast cosine transformation and considering only one octant of the unit cell. The effect of finite cell size is treated carefully by searching for the optimum cell size. Typical pasta structures (droplet, rod, slab, tube, and bubble) arranged in various crystalline configurations are obtained for both fixed proton fractions and $β$-equilibration. It is found that the properties of droplets/bubbles are similar in body-centered cubic (BCC) and face-centered cubic (FCC) lattices, where the FCC lattice generally becomes more stable than BCC lattice as density increases. For the rod/tube phases, the honeycomb lattice is always more stable than the simple one. By introducing an $ω$-$ρ$ cross coupling term, we further examine the pasta structures with a smaller slope of symmetry energy $L = 41.34$ MeV, which predicts larger onset densities for core-crust transition and non-spherical nuclei. Such a variation due to the reduction of $L$ is expected to have impacts on various properties in neutron stars, supernova dynamics, and binary neutron star mergers.

nucl-th↗