Is nuclear matter a solid or liquid?

[Paul Colby]

Managed to get through a Ph.D. in nuclear physics without covering nuclear matter calculations (or I just don't recall it). My question is does nuclear matter have any shear strength, or is it like an ideal gas? What little I see of elementary calculations it's like a fermi gas so one would expect no shear stresses to speak of.

 

[mathman]

What are you calling nuclear matter? All ordinary matter consists of atoms with nuclei and electrons.

 

[Paul Colby]

Okay, nuclear matter is a thing people study like for neutron stars and such where there are no free electrons. In ancient time (before quarks were more of a certainty) it's an $A = \infty$ where, $A$ is the atomic number nucleus, held together by a repulsive nuclear force and gravity. My question is does the current nuclear matter theory predict such stuff have a shear strength or is it more like a fermi gas?

 

[mathman]

Neutron stars are extremely solid, so I would suspect a large shear strength. See the following for a general discussion:
http://www2.lbl.gov/abc/wallchart/chapters/09/0.html