Comparison between the Thomas-Fermi and Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov Methods in the Inner Crust of a Neutron Star: The Role of Pairing Correlations

We investigated the role of a pairing correlation in the chemical composition of the inner crust of a neutron star with the extended Thomas-Fermi method, using the Strutinsky integral correction. We compare our results with the fully self-consistent Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov approach, showing that the resulting discrepancy, apart from the very low density region, is compatible with the typical accuracy we can achieve with standard mean-field methods.