Neutron stars in a Skyrme model with hyperons

Available Skyrme parametrizations with hyperons are examined from the point of view of their suitability for applications to neutron stars. It is shown that the hyperons can attenuate or even remove the problem of ferromagnetic instability common to (nearly) all Skyrme parametrizations of the nucleon-nucleon interaction. At high density the results are very sensitive to the choice of the Lambda-Lambda interaction. The selected parameter sets are then used to obtain the resulting properties of both cold neutron stars and hot protoneutron stars. The general features known from other models are recovered.Comment: 27 pages, 9 figure

Neutrino-nucleon scattering rate in the relativistic random phase approximation

The in-medium modification to the neutrino-nucleon scattering rate is calculated in the relativistic random phase approximation in the framework of a hadronic meson exchange model, in view of applications to neutrino transport in supernovae and protoneutron starsComment: 4 pages, 2 figures, to appear in the Proceedings of the PANIC02 conference, 30 sept - 4 oct 2002, Osaka, Japa

Relativistic transport equations with generalized mass shell constraints

We reexamine the derivation of relativistic transport equations for fermions when conserving the most general spinor structure of the interaction and Green function. Such an extension of the formalism is needed when dealing with {\it e.g.} spin-polarized nuclear matter or non-parity conserving interactions. It is shown that some earlier derivations can lead to an incomplete description of the evolution of the system even in the case of parity-conserving, spin-saturated systems. The concepts of kinetic equation and mass shell condition have to be extended, in particular both of them acquire a non trivial spinor structure which describe a rich polarization dynamics.Comment: 11 pages, submitted to Proceedings KB99 Workshop, September 20-24 1999, Rostock, German

On the Role of Dissipation in the Early Stages of Relativistic Heavy Ion Collisions

The influence of the dissipative terms on the conditions of formation and the characteristic parameters of shock waves in relativistic nuclear collisions is investigated for three types of equation of state (non linear QHD-1, resonance gas and lattice QCD). Energy and velocity profiles are obtained in a one-dimensional model; the duration of the shock phase and width of the shock front are calculated. It is shown that the presence of a phase transition results in a strong enhancement of the width of the shock front, which results in an increase of transparency. This effect, combined with the fact that the nuclei have a finite size, prevents the energy density to rise to its maximum value (full stopping) as would be predicted by a non dissipative shock model.Comment: 30 pages, 18 figures, uuencoded compressed postscript file (with figures already embedded), submitted to Nucl. Phys.

Neutrino-nucleon scattering rate in proto neutron star matter

We present a calculation of the neutrino-nucleon scattering cross section which takes into account the nuclear correlations in the relativistic random phase approximation. Our approach is based on a quantum hadrodynamics model with exchange of $\sigma$, $\omega$, $\pi$, $\rho$ and $\delta$ mesons. In view of applications to neutrino transport in the final stages of supernova explosion and protoneutron star cooling, we study the evolution of the neutrino mean free path as a function of density, proton-neutron asymmetry and temperature. Special attention was paid to the issues of renormalization of the Dirac sea, residual interactions in the tensor channel and meson mixing. It is found that RPA corrections, with respect to the mean field approximation, amount to only 10% to 15% at high density.Comment: 20 pages, 9 figures, subm. to EPJ