Speaker
Description
The cooling of protoneutron stars (PNSs) via neutrino emission and the onset of crust formation are both governed by the nuclear equation of state (EOS). In particular, properties of dense matter affect not only the neutrino opacity and thermal evolution, but also the characteristics of heavy nuclei emerging in the outer layers. This suggests a nontrivial interplay between neutrino cooling and crust formation.
In this work, we investigate this connection by means of numerical simulations using several nuclear EOS models. By systematically varying the density slope of the symmetry energy, $L$, we analyze how the thermal evolution and the timing of crust formation are correlated.
We find that smaller values of $L$ lead to slower cooling of the PNS. Nevertheless, the Coulomb coupling parameter of heavy nuclei increases under such conditions, resulting in an earlier onset of crust formation despite the prolonged cooling timescale. These results highlight the important role of the symmetry energy in shaping both the neutrino emission history and the emergence of the crust in PNSs.