Diffusion in Yukawa Crystals in White Dwarfs and Neutron Stars

Compact stars, white dwarfs and neutron stars, contain strongly interacting liquid and solid systems that we model using screened Yukawa interactions. Diffusion of impurities can release significant gravitational energy. We calculate diffusion constants using Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations for both multicomponent liquid and single component solid systems. Diffusion in the solid depends strongly on the number and nature of crystal defects. We are not aware of previous direct calculations of diffusion in Yukawa crystals.