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