Unified Approach to In-Medium Beta Decay

ORAL

Abstract

Weak processes like neutron decay and electron capture play a fundamental role in transport properties of neutron stars and binary neutron star mergers. In dense nuclear matter, these processes are dominated by particles on the Fermi surface and called direct and modified Urca processes. Traditionally, these processes are computed separately and semi analytically, using various approximations. In this work we will present a new unified approach to modified and direct Urca. This new approach allows us to go beyond the Fermi surface approximation and to fundamentally improve the in-medium calculation of weak decays by including the nucleon width.

*Parts of this work have been supported by DoE grant number No. #DE-FG02-05ER41375

Presenters

  • Alexander Haber

    • Washington University, St. Louis

Authors

  • Alexander Haber

    • Washington University, St. Louis
  • Ziyuan Zhang

    • Washington University, St. Louis
  • Mark G Alford

    • Washington University in St. Louis
    • Washington University in Saint Louis
  • Steven P Harris

    • University of Washington