Electrical conductivity tensor of dense plasma in magnetic fields

Electrical conductivity of finite-temperature plasma in neutron star crusts is studied for applications in magneto-hydrodynamical description of compact stars. We solve the Boltzmann kinetic equation in relaxation time approximation taking into account the anisotropy of transport due to the magnetic field, the effects of dynamical screening in the scattering matrix element and corre- lations among the nuclei. We show that conductivity has a minimum at a non-zero temperature, a low-temperature decrease and a power-law increase with increasing temperature. Selected numerical results are shown for matter composed of carbon, iron, and heavier nuclei present in the outer crusts of neutron star.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures, supplemental material contains 21 tables. Proceedings of "The Modern Physics of Compact Stars and Relativistic Gravity 2015", 30 September 2015 - 3 October 2015 Yerevan, Armeni

Electrical Resistivity and Hall Effect in Binary Neutron-Star Mergers

We examine the range of rest-mass densities, temperatures and magnetic fields involved in simulations of binary neutron-star mergers and identify the conditions under which the ideal-magnetohydrodynamics approximation breaks down and hence the magnetic-field decay should be accounted for. We use recent calculations of the conductivities of warm correlated plasma in envelopes of compact stars and find that the magnetic-field decay timescales are much larger than the characteristic timescales of the merger process for lengthscales down to a meter. Because these are smaller than the currently available resolution in numerical simulations, the ideal-magnetohydrodynamics approximation is effectively valid for all realistic simulations. At the same time, we find that the Hall effect can be important at low densities and low temperatures, where it can induce a non-dissipative rearrangement of the magnetic field. Finally, we mark the region in temperature and density where the hydrodynamic description breaks down.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, v2: minor changes, matches published version; v1: 9 page, 4 figure

Bulk viscosity from Urca processes: npeμnpe\mu matter in the neutrino-transparent regime

We study the bulk viscosity of moderately hot and dense, neutrino-transparent relativistic $npe\mu$ matter arising from weak-interaction direct Urca processes. This work parallels our recent study of the bulk viscosity of $npe\mu$ matter with a trapped neutrino component. The nuclear matter is modeled in a relativistic density functional approach with two different parametrizations -- DDME2 (which does not allow for the low-temperature direct-Urca process at any density) and NL3 (which allows for low-temperature direct-Urca process above a low-density threshold). We compute the equilibration rates of Urca processes of neutron decay and lepton capture, as well as the rate of the muon decay, and find that the muon decay process is subdominant to the Urca processes at temperatures $T\geq 3$~MeV in the case of DDME2 model and $T\geq 1$~MeV in the case of NL3 model. Thus, the Urca-process-driven bulk viscosity is computed with the assumption that pure leptonic reactions are frozen. As a result the electronic and muonic Urca channels contribute to the bulk viscosity independently and at certain densities the bulk viscosity of $npe\mu$ matter shows a double-peak structure as a function of temperature instead of the standard one-peak (resonant) form. In the final step, we estimate the damping timescales of density oscillations by the bulk viscosity. We find that, \eg, at a typical oscillation frequency $f=1$~kHz, the damping of oscillation is most efficient at temperatures $3\leq T\leq 5$~MeV and densities $n_B\leq 2n_0$ where they can affect the evolution of the post-merger object.Comment: 27 pages, 19 figure

Bulk Viscous Damping of Density Oscillations in Neutron Star Mergers

In this paper, we discuss the damping of density oscillations in dense nuclear matter in the temperature range relevant to neutron star mergers. This damping is due to bulk viscosity arising from the weak interaction ``Urca'' processes of neutron decay and electron capture. The nuclear matter is modelled in the relativistic density functional approach. The bulk viscosity reaches a resonant maximum close to the neutrino trapping temperature, then drops rapidly as temperature rises into the range where neutrinos are trapped in neutron stars. We investigate the bulk viscous dissipation timescales in a post-merger object and identify regimes where these timescales are as short as the characteristic timescale $\sim$10 ms, and, therefore, might affect the evolution of the post-merger object. Our analysis indicates that bulk viscous damping would be important at not too high temperatures of the order of a few MeV and densities up to a few times saturation density.Comment: v2: Matches published version; v1: 19 pages, 11 figures, submitted to "Particles

Electrical conductivity of warm neutron star crust in magnetic fields: Neutron-drip regime

We compute the anisotropic electrical conductivity tensor of the inner crust of a compact star at non-zero temperature by extending a previous work on the conductivity of the outer crust. The physical scenarios, where such crust is formed, involve proto-neutron stars born in supernova explosions, binary neutron star mergers and accreting neutron stars. The temperature-density range studied covers the transition from a non-degenerate to a highly degenerate electron gas and assumes that the nuclei form a liquid, i.e., the temperature is above the melting temperature of the lattice of nuclei. The electronic transition probabilities include (a) the dynamical screening of electron-ion interaction in the hard-thermal-loop approximation for the QED plasma, (b) the correlations of the ionic component in a one-component plasma, and (c) finite nuclear size effects. The conductivity tensor is obtained from the Boltzmann kinetic equation in relaxation time approximation accounting for the anisotropies introduced by a magnetic field. The sensitivity of the results towards the matter composition of the inner crust is explored by using several compositions of the inner crust which were obtained using different nuclear interactions and methods of solving the many-body problem. The standard deviation of relaxation time and components of the conductivity tensor from the average are below $\le 10\%$ except close to crust-core transition, where non-spherical nuclear structures are expected. Our results can be used in dissipative magneto-hydrodynamics (MHD) simulations of warm compact stars