JINA-CEE Online Seminar: Gap-Bridging enhancement of modified Urca processes in nuclear matter

Abstract:  In nuclear matter at neutron-star densities and temperatures, Cooper pairing leads to the formation of a gap in the nucleon excitation spectra resulting in exponentially strong Boltzmann suppression of many transport coefficients. However, density oscillations of sufficiently large amplitude can overcome this suppression for flavor-changing beta processes via the mechanism of gap bridging. In this talk I will give brief introduction to the mechanism of gap bridging and show that gap bridging can counteract Boltzmann suppression of neutrino emissivity for the realistic case of modified Urca processes with 3p2 neutron pairing.