Shell structure of nuclei in strong magnetic fields in neutron star crusts

By employing Strutinsky's treatment we demonstrate that the magnetic field gives rise to a phase shift of the shell oscillations in nuclear masses. The proton orbital magnetism is shown to enhance the nuclear shell effect especially when the field influence is comparable to the spin-orbit coupling. The magnetic field of the strength scale B approximately 10(16)-10(17) G is found to shift significantly the nuclear magic numbers of the iron region towards smaller mass numbers.