Nuclear matter in the crust of neutron stars derived from realistic N N interactions

Properties of inhomogeneous nuclear matter are evaluated within a relativistic mean-field approximation by using density-dependent coupling constants. A parametrization for these coupling constants is presented that reproduces the properties of the nucleon self-energy obtained in Dirac-Brueckner-Hartree-Fock calculations of asymmetric nuclear matter but also provides a good description for bulk properties of finite nuclei. The inhomogeneous infinite matter is described in terms of cubic Wigner-Seitz cells, which allows for a microscopic description of the structures in the so-called pasta-phase of nuclear configurations and provides a smooth transition to the limit of homogeneous matter. The effects of pairing properties and finite temperature are considered. A comparison is made to corresponding results by employing the phenomenological Skyrme Hartree-Fock approach, and the consequences for the Thomas-Fermi approximation are discussed.