Abstract
We obtain the critical magnetic field required for complete destruction of -wave pairing in neutron matter, thereby setting limits on the pairing and superfluidity of neutrons in the crust and outer core of magnetars. We find that for fields G the neutron fluid is nonsuperfluid—if weaker spin 1 superfluidity does not intervene—a result with profound consequences for the thermal, rotational, and oscillatory behavior of magnetars. Because the dineutron is not bound in vacuum, cold dilute neutron matter cannot exhibit a proper BCS-BEC crossover. Nevertheless, owing to the strongly resonant behavior of the interaction at low densities, neutron matter shows a precursor of the BEC state, as manifested in Cooper-pair correlation lengths being comparable to the interparticle distance. We make a systematic quantitative study of this type of BCS-BEC crossover in the presence of neutron fluid spin polarization induced by an ultrastrong magnetic field. We evaluate the Cooper-pair wave function, quasiparticle occupation numbers, and quasiparticle spectra for densities and temperatures spanning the BCS-BEC crossover region. The phase diagram of spin-polarized neutron matter is constructed and explored at different polarizations.
12 More- Received 21 October 2015
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.93.015802
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