Upper edge of the neutron star inner crust: The drip point and its vicinity

Abstract

A semimicroscopic self-consistent quantum approach was developed recently to describe the inner crust structure of neutron stars within the Wigner-Seitz method and with the explicit inclusion of neutron and proton pairing correlations is used for finding the neutron drip point that separates the outer and inner crusts. The equilibrium configurations of the crust are examined in vicinity of the drip point and in the upper part of the inner crust, for the density region corresponding to average Fermi momenta k F = 0.2 ÷ 0.5 fm -1 .