Spinodal instabilities and the distillation effect in nuclear matter under strong magnetic fields

Abstract

We study the effect of strong magnetic fields, of the order of $10^{18}$-$10^{19}$ G, on the instability region of nuclear matter at subsaturation densities. Relativistic nuclear models both with constant couplings and with density dependent parameters are considered. It is shown that a strong magnetic field can have large effects on the instability regions giving rise to bands of instability and wider unstable regions. As a consequence we predict larger transition densities at the inner edge of the crust of compact stars with strong magnetic field. The direction of instability gives rise to a very strong distillation effect if the last Landau level is only partially filled. However, for almost completed Landau levels an anti-distillation effect may occur.