nuclear pasta

== English == === Etymology === From the resemblance of its phases to various types of pasta. === Noun === nuclear pasta (uncountable) (astrophysics) A type of degenerate matter found within the crusts of neutron stars, where the competition between nuclear attraction and Coulomb repulsion forces of similar magnitude allows for the formation of a variety of complex structures assembled from neutrons and protons. Watanabe, Gentaro; Iida, Kei; Sato, Katsuhiko (August 2000), “Thermodynamic properties of nuclear "pasta" in neutron star crusts”, in Nuclear Physics A, volume 676, numbers 1-4, →DOI, pages 455–473