Nuclear Waffles

The dense neutron-rich matter found in supernovae and neutron stars is expected to form complex nonuniform phases referred to as nuclear pasta. The pasta shapes depend on density, temperature and proton fraction and determine many transport properties in supernovae and neutron star crusts. We use two recently developed hybrid CPU/GPU codes to perform large scale molecular dynamics (MD) simulations with $51200$ and $409600$ nucleons of nuclear pasta. From the output of the MD simulations we characterize the topology and compute two observables, the radial distribution function $g(r)$ and the structure factor $S(q)$, for systems with proton fractions $Y_p=0.10, 0.20, 0.30$ and $0.40$ at about one third of nuclear saturation density and temperatures near $1.0$ MeV. We observe that the two lowest proton fraction systems simulated, $Y_p=0.10$ and $0.20$, equilibrate quickly and form liquid-like structures. Meanwhile, the two higher proton fraction systems, $Y_p=0.30$ and $0.40$, take a longer time to equilibrate and organize themselves in solid-like periodic structures. Furthermore, the $Y_p=0.40$ system is made up of slabs, lasagna phase, interconnected by defects while the $Y_p=0.30$ systems consist of a stack of perforated plates, the nuclear waffle phase. The periodic configurations observed in our MD simulations for proton fractions $Y_pge0.30$ have important consequences for the structure factors $S(q)$ of protons and neutrons, which relate to many transport properties of supernovae and neutron star crust. A detailed study of the waffle phase and how its structure depends on temperature, size of the simulation and the screening length showed that finite-size effects appear to be under control and, also, that the plates in the waffle phase merge at temperatures slightly above $1.0$ MeV and the holes in the plates form an hexagonal lattice at temperatures slightly lower than $1.0$ MeV.

The Interplanetary Network Supplement to the Fermi GBM Catalog - An AO-2 and AO-3 Guest Investigator Project

In the first two years of operation of the Fermi GBM, the 9-spacecraft Interplanetary Network (IPN) detected 158 GBM bursts with one or two distant spacecraft, and triangulated them to annuli or error boxes. Combining the IPN and GBM localizations leads to error boxes which are up to 4 orders of magnitude smaller than those of the GBM alone. These localizations comprise the IPN supplement to the GBM catalog, and they support a wide range of scientific investigations.

Integrating the Fermi Gamma-Ray Burst Monitor into the 3rd Interplanetary Network

We are integrating the Fermi Gamma-Ray Burst Monitor (GBM) into the Interplanetary Network (IPN) of Gamma-Ray Burst (GRB) detectors. With the GBM, the IPN will comprise 9 experiments. This will 1) assist the Fermi team in understanding and reducing their systematic localization uncertainties, 2) reduce the sizes of the GBM and Large Area Telescope (LAT) error circles by 1 to 4 orders of magnitude, 3) facilitate the identification of GRB sources with objects found by ground- and space-based observatories at other wavelengths, from the radio to very high energy gamma-rays, 4) reduce the uncertainties in associating some LAT detections of high energy photons with GBM bursts, and 5) facilitate searches for non-electromagnetic GRB counterparts, particularly neutrinos and gravitational radiation. We present examples and demonstrate the synergy between Fermi and the IPN. This is a Fermi Cycle 2 Guest Investigator project.