Comparison between the Thomas–fermi and Hartree–Fock–Bogoliubov methods in the inner crust of a neutron star: The role of pairing correlations

Abstract

We investigated the role of a pairing correlation in the chemical composition of the inner crust of a neutron star with the extended Thomas–Fermi method, using the Strutinsky integral correction. We compare our results with the fully self-consistent Hartree–Fock–Bogoliubov approach, showing that the resulting discrepancy, apart from the very low density region, is compatible with the typical accuracy we can achieve with standard mean-field methods.