Neutron stars and the fermionic Casimir effect

The inner crust of neutron stars consists of nuclei of various shapes immersed in a neutron gas and stabilized by the Coulomb interaction in the form of a crystal lattice. The scattering of neutrons on nuclear inhomegeneities leads to the quantum correction to the total energy of the system. This correction resembles the Casimir energy and turns out to have a large influence on the structure of the crust.