Low-density neutron matter

Abstract

The properties of low-density neutron matter are important for the understanding of neutron star crusts and the exterior of large neutron-rich nuclei. We examine various properties of dilute neutron matter using quantum Monte Carlo methods, with s- and p-wave terms in the interaction. Our results provide a smooth evolution of the equation of state and pairing gap from extremely small densities, where analytic expressions are available, up to the strongly interacting regime probed experimentally and described theoretically in cold atomic systems, where the Fermi momentum is approximately half an inverse fermi and the pairing gap becomes of the order of magnitude of the Fermi energy. We also present results for the momentum distribution and pair distributions, displaying the same evolution from weak to strong coupling. Combined with previous quantum Monte Carlo and other calculations at moderate densities, these results provide strong constraints on the neutron matter equation of state up to saturation densities.