A NEW BARYONIC EQUATION OF STATE AT SUB-NUCLEAR DENSITIES FOR CORE-COLLAPSE SIMULATIONS

We calculate a new equation of state for baryons at sub-nuclear densities meant for the use in core-collapse simulations of massive stars. The abundances of various nuclei are obtained together with the thermodynamic quantities. The formulation is the nuclear statistical equilibrium description and the liquid drop approximation of nuclei. The model free energy to minimize is calculated by relativistic mean field theory for nucleons and the mass formula for nuclei with atomic number up to similar to 1000. We have also taken into account the pasta phase, thanks to which the transition to uniform nuclear matter in our equation of state (EOS) occurs in the conventional manner: nuclei are not dissociated into nucleons but survive right up to the transition to uniform nuclear matter. We find that the free energy and other thermodynamical quantities are not very different from those given in the H. Shen's EOS, one of the standard EOSs that adopt the single nucleus approximation. On the other hand, the average mass is systematically different, which may have an important ramification to the rates of electron captures and coherent neutrino scatterings on nuclei in supernova cores. It is also interesting that the root mean square of the mass number is not very different from the average mass number, since the former is important for the evaluation of coherent scattering rates on nuclei but has been unavailable so far. The EOS table is currently under construction, which will include the weak interaction rates.