Formation of an ordered phase in neutron star matter

In this work, we explore the possible formation of ordered phases in hadronic matter, related to the presence of hyperons at high densities. We analyze a microscopic mechanism which can lead to the crystallization of the hyperonic sector by the confinement of the hyperons on the nodes of a lattice. For this purpose, we introduce a simplified model of the hadronic plasma, in which the nuclear interaction between protons, neutrons and hyperons is mediated by meson fields. We find that, for some reasonable sets of values of the model parameters, such ordered phases are energetically favoured as density increases beyond a threshold value.Comment: 16 pages, 14 figures, submitted to NP