Effects of the U boson on the inner edge of neutron star crusts

We explore effects of the light vector U boson, which is weakly coupled to nucleons, on the transition density rho(t) and pressure P-t at the inner edge separating the liquid core from the solid crust of neutron stars. Three methods, i.e., the thermodynamical approach, the curvature matrix approach, and the Vlasov equation approach, are used to determine the transition density rho(t) with the Skyrme effective nucleon-nucleon interactions. We find that the rho(t) and P-t depend on not only the ratio of coupling strength to mass squared of the U boson g(2)/mu(2) but also its mass mu due to the finite-range interaction from the U-boson exchange. In particular, our results indicate that the rho(t) and P-t are sensitive to both g(2)/mu(2) and mu if the U-boson mass mu is larger than about 2 MeV. Furthermore, we show that both g(2)/mu(2) and mu can have significant influence on the mass-radius relation and the crustal fraction of total moment of inertia of neutron stars. In addition, we study the exchange term contribution of the U boson based on the density matrix expansion method, and demonstrate that the exchange term effects on the nuclear matter equation of state as well as the rho(t) and P-t are generally negligible.