The lead nucleus as a miniature surrogate for a neutron star

The nucleus of ²⁰⁸Pb, a system 18 orders of magnitude smaller and 55 orders of magnitude lighter than a neutron star, may be used as a miniature surrogate to establish important correlations between its neutron skin and several neutron-star properties. Indeed, models with a thicker neutron skin in ²⁰⁸Pb generate larger neutron stars that have a lower liquid-to-solid transition density. Further, we illustrate how the correlation between the neutron skin in ²⁰⁸Pb and the radius of a 1.4 solar-mass neutron star may be used to place important constraints on the equation of state of neutron-rich matter and how it may help elucidate the existence of a phase transition at the core of the star.