Thermal Fluctuations in Nuclear Pasta. (arXiv:2005.04766v2 [nucl-th] UPDATED)
<a href="http://arxiv.org/find/nucl-th/1/au:+Caplan_M/0/1/0/all/0/1">M. E. Caplan</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/nucl-th/1/au:+Forsman_C/0/1/0/all/0/1">C. R. Forsman</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/nucl-th/1/au:+Schneider_A/0/1/0/all/0/1">A. S. Schneider</a>

Despite their astrophysical relevance, nuclear pasta phases are relatively
unstudied at high temperatures. We present molecular dynamics simulations of
symmetric nuclear matter with several topologies of `lasagna’ at a range of
temperatures to study the pasta-uniform transition. Using the Minkowski
functionals we quantify trends in the occupied volume, surface area, mean
breadth, and Euler characteristic. The amplitude of surface displacements of
the pasta increase with temperature which produce short lived topological
defects such as holes and filaments near melting, resulting in power laws for
increasing surface curvature with temperature. We calculate the static
structure factor and report the shear viscosity and thermal conductivity of
pasta, finding that the shear viscosity is minimized at the melting
temperature. These results may have implications for the thermoelastic
properties of nuclear pasta and finite temperature corrections to the equation
of state at pasta densities.

Despite their astrophysical relevance, nuclear pasta phases are relatively
unstudied at high temperatures. We present molecular dynamics simulations of
symmetric nuclear matter with several topologies of `lasagna’ at a range of
temperatures to study the pasta-uniform transition. Using the Minkowski
functionals we quantify trends in the occupied volume, surface area, mean
breadth, and Euler characteristic. The amplitude of surface displacements of
the pasta increase with temperature which produce short lived topological
defects such as holes and filaments near melting, resulting in power laws for
increasing surface curvature with temperature. We calculate the static
structure factor and report the shear viscosity and thermal conductivity of
pasta, finding that the shear viscosity is minimized at the melting
temperature. These results may have implications for the thermoelastic
properties of nuclear pasta and finite temperature corrections to the equation
of state at pasta densities.

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