Exploding neutron stars: understanding the role of pasta phases

Neutron stars provide an exciting field of study, not only for the many open questions regarding their inner composition, but also for some of the most puzzling astrophysical phenomena observed in Nature: rapid changes in the rotational frequency, glitches, and sudden bursts of huge amounts of energy, flares. All these strange phenomena are believed to be caused by the impact of the magnetic field on the inner crust of the star. Therefore, it is very important to understand how the models that we use to describe this region behave when subject to extreme magnetic fields. In this talk we will try to provide some hints on this problem, by studying the role of the so-called pasta phases.