The Elasticity of Nuclear Pasta

The elastic properties of neutron star crusts are relevant for a variety of currently or or near-future observable electromagnetic and gravitational wave phenomena. These phenomena may depend on the elastic properties of nuclear pasta found in the inner crust. This talk will present large scale classical molecular dynamics simulations where we deform nuclear pasta. We report on simulations of idealized samples of nuclear pasta and describe their breaking mechanism and also deform nuclear pasta that is arranged into many domains, similar to what is known for the ions in neutron star crusts. We show that nuclear pasta may be the strongest known material, perhaps with a shear modulus of $10^{30}\,\text{ergs/cm}^3$ and breaking strain greater than 0.1.