Superfluidity of neutron matter: (II). Triplet pairing

Abstract

The possibility of neutron triplet pairing and superfluidity in neutron star matter is investigated, and the energy gap and corresponding critical temperature is calculated or estimated as a function of Fermi momentum or density. The calculations are performed for a “one-pion-exchange gaussian” potential, and compared with the results for neutron and proton singlet pairing and superfluidity calculated earlier. The results indicate that neutron superfluidity, corresponding specifically to 3P 2 state pairing, may exist in a high-density shell in the nuclear-matter region of a neutron star, i.e. for 1.6 × 10 14g/cm 3 < ρ < 1.4 × 10 15g/cm 3, and the maximum self-consistent energy gap is Δ 0 1 k F ≈ 0.6 MeV and Δ 0 3( k F) ≈ 0.1 MeV for an effective mass m ∗ ≈ 0.75 and k F ≈ 2.1 fm −1 , i.e. for a mas ϱ ≈ 5.2 × 10 14g/cm 3. For m ∗ = 1.0 we get correspondingly Δ 0 1( k F) ≈ 3.3 MeV and Δ 0 3( k F) ≈ 0.6 MeV for k F ≈ 2.2 fm −1.