Meaning of nuclear pasta | Babel Free

Definitions

A type of degenerate matter found within the crusts of neutron stars, where the competition between nuclear attraction and Coulomb repulsion forces of similar magnitude allows for the formation of a variety of complex structures assembled from neutrons and protons.

uncountable

Examples

“Watanabe, Gentaro; Iida, Kei; Sato, Katsuhiko (August 2000), “Thermodynamic properties of nuclear "pasta" in neutron star crusts”, in Nuclear Physics A, volume 676, numbers 1-4, →DOI, pages 455–473”

“The elastic properties of neutron star crusts are relevant for a variety of currently observable or near-future electromagnetic and gravitational wave⟳ phenomena. These phenomena may depend⟳ on the elastic properties of nuclear pasta found in the inner crust.”

“The inner crust [of a neutron star] is where the nuclear pasta phase, a novel state of matter⟳ having nucleons arranged in a variety of complex shapes, is expected to appear⟳. In the innermost layers near the crust/core boundary, because of the large effect of the Coulomb lattice energy, cylindrical and planar geometries can occur⟳, both as nuclei and as bubbles. These phases are collectively named nuclear pasta (by analogy to the shape⟳ of spaghetti, macaroni and lasagna).”

CEFR level