Self-consistent dynamical mean-field investigation of exotic structures in isospin-asymetric nuclear matter

Abstract : The exotic structures expected in the outermost layer of neutron stars are investigated in a new approach. It is based on the DYnamical WAvelets in Nuclei (DYWAN) model of nuclear collisions. This microscopic dynamical approach is an Extended Time-Dependent Hartree-Fock description based on a wavelet representation. The model addresses the dynamical exploration of complex nuclear structures, beyond the Wigner-Seitz (WS) approximation and without any assumption on their final shapes. The present study focuses on exotic phases of cold matter evidenced dynamically at sub-saturation densities, currently within a pure mean field framework, before tackling the effects of the multi-particle correlations in a forthcoming study. Starting from inhomogeneous initial conditions provided by nuclei located on an initial crystalline lattice, the exotic structures result from a dynamical self-consistent treatment where, in principle, the nuclear system can freely self-organize, modify the lattice structure or even break the lattice and the initial matter distribution symmetries. In this work nuclei are initially slightly excited with low-lying collective modes. The system can then explore geometrical configurations with similar energies, without being trapped in the vicinity of a local minimum. In this quantum framework, different effects are analyzed, among them the sensitivity to the equation of state and to the proton fraction.