Analytical determination of the structure of the outer crust of a cold nonaccreted neutron star

Abstract

A very fast iterative method is presented to calculate the internal constitution of the outer crust of a cold nonaccreted neutron star, making use of very accurate analytical formulas for the transition pressures between adjacent crustal layers and their density. In addition to the composition of the different crustal layers, their depth and their baryonic mass content can be simultaneously estimated using an approximate solution of Einstein's general relativistic equations. The overall computing time is drastically reduced compared to the traditional approach, thus opening the door to large-scale statistical studies and sensitivity analyses.