The single-nucleon potential in hot nuclear matter is investigated in the framework of the Brueckner theory by adopting the realistic Argonne V18 or Nijmegen 93 two-body nucleon-nucleon interaction supplemented by a microscopic three-body force. The rearrangement contribution to the single-particle potential induced by the ground state correlations is calculated in terms of the hole-line expansion of the mass operator and provides a significant repulsive contribution in the low-momentum region around and below the Fermi surface. Increasing temperature leads to a reduction of the effect, while increasing density makes it become stronger. The three-body force suppresses somewhat the ground state correlations due to its strong short-range repulsion, increasing with density. Inclusion of the three-body force contribution results in a quite different temperature dependence of the single-particle potential at high enough densities as compared to that adopting the pure two-body force. The effects of three-body force and ground state correlations on the nucleon effective mass are also discussed.
The screening potential in the $^1S_0$ and $^3S_1$ pairing channels in neutron and nuclear matter in different approximations is discussed. It is found that the vertex corrections to the potential are much stronger in nuclear matter than in neutron matter.
Highlights on the recent research activity, carried out by the Italian Community involved in the "Nuclear Matter and Nuclear Dynamics" field, will be presented.
Starting with a two-body effective nucleon-nucleon interaction, it is shown that the infinite nuclear matter model of atomic nuclei is more appropriate than the conventional Bethe-Weizsacker like mass formulae to extract saturation properties of nuclear matter from nuclear masses. In particular, the saturation density thus obtained agrees with that of electron scattering data and the Hartree-Fock calculations. For the first time using nuclear mass formula, the radius constant $r_0$=1.138 fm and binding energy per nucleon $a_v$ = -16.11 MeV, corresponding to the infinite nuclear matter, are con…
The liquid-gas phase transition in hot neutron-rich nuclear matter is investigated within a self-consistent thermal model using different interactions with or without isospin and/or momentum dependence. The boundary of the phase-coexistence region is shown to be sensitive to the density dependence of the nuclear symmetry energy as well as the isospin and momentum dependence of the nuclear interaction.
We report here theoretical investigations on the complexity of nuclear structure, which have been carried out in the framework of different many-body approaches, typically applied to nuclear matter and quark matter studies. The variational, functional and perturbative scheme are illustrated in their latest developments. The effect of various nucleon-nucleon interactions are tested, particularly in the context of the nuclear response functions, against a large body of experimental data. The properties and decay widths of hypernuclei are shortly revisited, while the equation of state of isospin …
An interesting method of obtaining equation of state for nuclear matter, from a density dependent M3Y interaction, by minimizing the energy per nucleon is described. The density dependence parameters of the interaction are obtained by reproducing the saturation energy per nucleon and the saturation density of spin and isospin symmetric cold infinite nuclear matter. The nuclear matter equation of state thus obtained is then used to calculate the pressure, the energy density, the nuclear incompressibility and the velocity of sound in nuclear medium. The results obtained are in good agreement wit…
Radii of charge and neutron distributions are fundamental nuclear properties. They depend on both nuclear interaction parameters related to the equation of state of infinite nuclear matter and on quantal shell effects, which are strongly impacted by the presence of nuclear surface. In this work, by studying the dependence of charge and neutron radii, and neutron skin, on nuclear matter parameters, we assess different mechanisms that drive nuclear sizes. We apply nuclear density functional theory using a family of Skyrme functionals obtained by means of different optimization protocols targetin…
In connection with the contribution "Quantum Condensates in Nuclear Matter" some problems are given to become more familiar with the techniques of many-particle physics.
We investigate the pairing property of nuclear matter with Relativistic Hartree-Bogoliubov(RHB) approach. Recently, the RHB approach has been widely applied to nuclear matter and finite nuclei. We have extended the RHB approach to be able to include non-linear coupling terms of mesons. In this paper we apply it to nuclear matter and observe the effect of non-linear terms on pairing gaps.
An extended version of the non linear Walecka model, with rho mesons and eletromagnetic field is used to investigate the possibility of phase transitions in hot (warm) nuclear matter, giving rise to droplet formation. Surface properties of asymmetric nuclear matter as the droplet surface energy and its thickness are also examined.
Neutron stars are the most dense objects in the observable Universe and conventionally one uses nuclear theory to obtain the equation of state (EOS) of dense hadronic matter and the global properties of these stars. In this work, we review various aspects of nuclear matter within an effective Chiral model and interlink fundamental quantities both from nuclear saturation as well as vacuum properties and correlate it with the star properties.
To analyze the property of nuclear matter in the 16O+208Pb collision system, the internuclear potential of the fusion reaction is calculated by using the Skyrme forces associated with an extensive nuclear matter incompressibility K range in the semiclassical energy density formalism. Comparison of the experimental fusion cross sections and those obtained by using potentials derived from different forces with various K values shows that the incompressibility of nuclear matter changes during the fusion process at different bombarding energies. The results indicate that, as the energy increases, …
Using a self-consistent quark model for nuclear matter we investigate variations of the masses of the non-strange vector mesons, the hyperons and the nucleon in dense nuclear matter (up to four times the normal nuclear density). We find that the changes in the hadron masses can be described in terms of the value of the scalar mean-field in matter. The model is then used to calculate the density dependence of the quark condensate in-medium, which turns out to be well approximated by a linear function of the nuclear density. Some relations among the hadron properties and the in-medium quark cond…
In neutron star crust, non-uniform structure of nuclear matter is expected, which is called the "pasta" structure. From the recent studies of giant flares in magnetars, these structures might be related to some observables and physical quantities of the neutron star crust. To investigate the above quantities, we numerically explore the pasta structures with a fully threedimensional geometry and study the properties of low-density nuclear matter, based on the relativistic mean-field model and the Thomas-Fermi approximation. We observe typical pasta structures for fixed proton number-fraction an…
We calculate the equation of state of nuclear matter in the self-consistent T-matrix scheme including three-body nuclear interactions. We study the effect of the three-body force on the self-energies and spectral functions of nucleons in medium.
We have studied the influences of isospin symmetry breaking of nucleon-nucleon interaction on the various properties of asymmetrical nuclear matter and $β$-stable matter. For asymmetrical nuclear matter, it is found that by including this isospin symmetry breaking, the changes of bulk properties increase by increasing both density and asymmetry parameter. However, these effects on the total energy and equation of state of $β$-stable matter are ignorable. For asymmetrical nuclear matter, the validity of the empirical parabolic law in the isospin symmetry breaking case is shown. It is observed t…
With the global color symmetry model being extended to finite chemical potential, we study the density dependence of the local and nonlocal scalar quark condensates in nuclear matter. The calculated results indicate that the quark condensates increase smoothly with the increasing of nuclear matter density before the critical value (about 12$ρ_0$) is reached. It also manifests that the chiral symmetry is restored suddenly as the density of nuclear matter reaches its critical value. Meanwhile, the nonlocal quark condensate in nuclear matter changes nonmonotonously against the space-time distance…
We present a phenomenological theory of nuclei that incorporates clustering at the nuclear surface in a general form. The theory explains the recently extracted large symmetry energy by Natowitz et al. at low densities of nuclear matter and is fully consistent with the static properties of nuclei. In phenomenological way clusters of all sizes, shapes along with medium modifications are included. Symmetric nuclear matter properties are discussed in detail. Arguments are given that lead to an equation of state of nuclear matter consistent with clustering in the low density region. We also discus…
The well-known correlations of low-energy three and four-nucleon observables with a typical three-nucleon scale (e.g., the Tjon line) is extended to light nuclei and nuclear matter. Evidence for the scaling between light nuclei binding energies and the triton one are pointed out. We argue that the saturation energy and density of nuclear matter are correlated to the triton binding energy. The available systematic nuclear matter calculations indicate a possible band structure representing these correlations.
A mean field calculation for obtaining the equation of state (EOS) for symmetric nuclear matter from a density dependent M3Y interaction supplemented by a zero-range potential is described. The energy per nucleon is minimized to obtain the ground state of symmetric nuclear matter. The saturation energy per nucleon used for nuclear matter calculations is determined from the co-efficient of the volume term of Bethe-Weizsäcker mass formula which is evaluated by fitting the recent experimental and estimated atomic mass excesses from Audi-Wapstra-Thibault atomic mass table by minimizing the mean sq…
As an extension of our previous work, the growth of density fluctuations in the spinodal region of charge asymmetric nuclear matter is investigated in the basis of the stochastic mean-field approach in the non-relativistic framework. A complete treatment of density correlation functions are presented by including collective modes and non-collective modes as well.
The mass shift of charmonium states in nuclear matter is studied in the perturbative QCD approach. The leading-order effect due to the change of gluon condensate in nuclear matter is evaluated using the leading-order QCD formula, while the higher-twist effect due to the partial restoration of chiral symmetry is estimated using a hadronic model. We find that while the mass of $J/ψ$ in nuclear matter decreases only slightly, those of $ψ(3686)$ and $ψ(3770)$ states are reduced appreciably. Experimental study of the mass shift of charmonium states in nuclear matter can thus provide valuable inform…
The symmetry energy coefficients of dilute clusterized nuclear matter are evaluated in the $S$-matrix framework. Employing a few different definitions commonly used in the literature for uniform nuclear matter, it is seen that the different definitions lead to perceptibly different results for the symmetry coefficients for dilute nuclear matter. They are found to be higher compared to those obtained for uniform matter in the low density domain. The calculated results are in reasonable consonance with those extracted recently from experimental data.
$ϕ$-meson mass in nuclear matter ($m_ϕ^*$) is investigated using an effective Lagrangian of $ϕ$ interacting with octet baryons. $m_ϕ^*$ decreases by a few \% in nuclear matter due to the current conservation and effective nucleon/hyperon masses. Its implication to the p-A and A-A collisions are briefly discussed.
A meson exchange model of the $ππ$ interaction which fits free $ππ$ scattering data is used to calculate the interactions of pions in nuclear matter as a function of nuclear density. Polarization of the nuclear medium by the pions results in a marked increase in the s-wave $ππ$ attraction at low energy. The influence of this effect on the nucleon-nucleon interaction is a corresponding increase with density of the $NN$ central potential due to the exchange of two correlated pions, resulting in an $NN$ interaction which fails to saturate. A possible mechanism for restoring the theoretical stabil…
We present a model for the description of nuclear matter and finite nuclei, and at the same time, for the study of medium modifications of nucleon properties. The nucleons are described as nontopological solitons which interact through the self-consistent exchange of scalar and vector mesons. The model explicitly incorporates quark degrees of freedom into nuclear many-body systems and provides satisfactory results on the nuclear properties. The present model predicts a significant increase of the nucleon radius at normal nuclear matter density. It is very interesting to see the nucleon propert…
The transverse profile dependence of elliptic flow is studied in a parton cascade model. We compare results from the binary scaling profile to results from the wounded nucleon scaling profile. The impact parameter dependence of elliptic flow is shown to depend sensitively on the transverse profile of initial particles, however, if elliptic flow is plotted as a function of the relative multiplicity, the nuclear profile dependence disappears. The insensitivity was found previously in a hydrodynamical calculation. Our calculations indicate that the insensitivity is also valid with additional visc…
We develop a nonperturbative technique in field theory to study properties of infinite nuclear matter at zero temperature as well as at finite temperatures. Here we dress the nuclear matter with off-mass shell pions. The techniques of thermofield dynamics are used for finite temperature calculations. Equation of state is derived from the dynamics of the interacting system in a self consistent manner. The transition temperature for nuclear matter appears to be around 15 MeV.
The running of the $ρ\bar N N$ couplings in presence of nuclear matter is studied, and the relevant $β$-functions are shown to be different for $ρ^0$ and $ρ^+$, when the nuclear medium is asymmetric.
We present a relativistic chiral theory of nuclear matter which includes the effect of confinement. Nuclear binding is obtained with a chiral invariant scalar background field associated with the radial fluctuations of the chiral condensate Nuclear matter stability is ensured once the scalar response of the nucleon depending on the quark confinement mechanism is properly incorporated. All the parameters are fixed or constrained by hadron phenomenology and lattice data. A good description of nuclear saturation is reached, which includes the effect of in-medium pion loops. Asymmetry properties o…
We consider $K^-$ nucleon elastic and inelastic scattering in isospin symmetric nuclear matter. It is found that the proper description of the $Λ(1405)$ resonance structure in nuclear matter requires a self-consistent approach. Then the $Λ(1405) $ resonance mass remains basically unchanged, however, the resonance acquires an increased decay width as nuclear matter is compressed. The elastic and inelastic scattering amplitudes show important medium modifications close to the kaon nucleon threshold. We also construct the $K^-$-nuclear optical potential appropriate for $K^-$ atoms. Our microscopi…
We examine saturation properties of a quark-based picture of nuclear matter. Soliton matter consisting of nonlocal confining solitons is used to model nuclear matter. Each composite nucleon is described by a non-topological soliton as given by the Global Color Model. We apply techniques and concepts from the discription of crystal lattices. In particular, the Wigner-Seitz approximation is used to calculate the properties of the soliton lattice at the mean-field level. We focus on infinite nuclear matter at around standard nuclear matter density with the simplest one-parameter assumption for th…
A new improved quark mass density-dependent model including u, d quarks, $σ$ mesons, $ω$ mesons and $ρ$ mesons is presented. Employing this model, the properties of nuclear matter, neutron matter and neutron star are studied. We find that it can describe above properties successfully. The results given by the new improved quark mass density- dependent model and by the quark meson coupling model are compared.
The improved quark mass density-dependent (IQMDD) model, which has been successfully used to describe the properties of both infinite nuclear matter and finite nuclei, is applied to investigate the properties of quark deconfinement phase transition. By using the finite-temperature quantum field theory, we calculate the finite temperature effective potential and extend the IQMDD model to finite temperature and finite nuclear matter density. The critical temperature and the critical density of nuclear matter are given and the QCD phase diagram is addressed. It is shown that this model can not on…
The understanding of the interaction of nucleons in nuclear and neutron-rich matter at non-zero temperature is important for a variety of applications ranging from heavy-ion collisions to nuclear astrophysics. In this paper we apply the Dirac-Brueckner-Hartree-Fock method along with the Bonn B nucleon-nucleon potential to predict single-particle properties in symmetric nuclear matter and pure neutron matter at finite temperature. It is found that temperature effects are generally small but can be significant at low density and momentum.
The effects of higher order corrections of ring diagrams for the quark condensate are studied by using the bare vertex Nuclear Schwinger Dyson formalism based on $σ$-$ω$ model. At the high density the quark condensate is reduced by the higher order contribution of ring diagrams more than the mean field theory or the Hartree-Fock .
Isospin-breaking effects in nuclear matter are studied in the framework of a medium-modified Skyrme model. The proposed effective Lagrangian incorporates both the medium influence of the surrounding nuclear environment on the single nucleon properties and an explicit isospin-breaking effect in the mesonic sector. The approach predicts that the neutron-proton mass difference decreases in isospin-symmetric nuclear matter but by a very small amount only.
It is shown within the strong-coupling BCS approach that, starting from the zero-density limit of superfluid nuclear matter, with increasing density deuterons first shrink before they start expanding.
Quantum molecular dynamics is applied to study the ground state properties of nuclear matter at subsaturation densities. Clustering effects are observed as to soften the equation of state at these densities. The structure of nuclear matter at subsaturation density shows some exotic shapes with variation of the density.
Two recent experiments have demonstrated that the effective $ρ$-mass in nuclear medium, as extracted from the $^3He(γ, π^+ π^-)$ reaction, is substantially reduced. This has been advocated as an indication of partial restoration of chiral symmetry in nuclear matter. We show that even in the absence of chiral symmetry, effective mean field nuclear matter models can explain these findings quantitatively.
With the relativistic representation of the nuclear tensor force that is included automatically by the Fock diagrams, we explored the self-consistent tensor effects on the properties of nuclear matter system. The analysis were performed within the density-dependent relativistic Hartree-Fock (DDRHF) theory. The tensor force is found to notably influence the saturation mechanism, the equation of state and the symmetry energy of nuclear matter, as well as the neutron star properties. Without introducing any additional free parameters, the DDRHF approach paves a natural way to reveal the tensor ef…
Based on the general analysis of the grand canonical partition function in the S-matrix framework, the calculated results on symmetry energy, free energy and entropy of dilute warm nuclear matter are presented. At a given temperature and density, the symmetry energy or symmetry free energy of the clusterized nuclear matter in the S-matrix formulation deviates, particularly at low temperature and relatively higher density, in a subtle way, from the linear dependence on the square of the isospin asymmetry parameter $X=(ρ_n-ρ_p)/(ρ_n+ρ_p)$, contrary to those obtained for homogeneous nucleonic mat…
We review the current status of our microscopic calculations in asymmetric nuclear matter. Updated predictions of the equation of state are made available to potential users. We discuss the features of our EoS in relation to the predicted neutron star maximum masses.
A chiral model based on nucleons interacting via boson exchange is investigated. Fluctuation effects are included consistently beyond the mean-field approximation in the framework of the functional renormalization group. The liquid-gas phase transition of symmetric nuclear matter is studied in detail. No sign of a chiral restoration transition is found up to temperatures of about 100 MeV and densities of at least three times the density of normal nuclear matter. Moreover, the model is extended to asymmetric nuclear matter and the constraints from neutron star observations are discussed.
The bridge between finite and infinite nuclear system is analyzed for the fundamental quantities like binding energy, density, compressibility, giant monopole excitation energy and effective mass of both nuclear matter and finite nuclei systems. It is shown quantitatively that by knowing one of the fundamental property of one system one can estimate the same in its counter part, only approximately
We compute the polarized quark distribution function of a bound nucleon. The Chiral Quark-Soliton model provides the quark and antiquark substructure of the nucleon embedded in nuclear matter. Nuclear effects cause significant modifications to the polarized distributions including an enhancement of the axial coupling constant.
The density and temperature dependence of the nuclear symmetry free energy is investigated using microscopic two- and three-body nuclear potentials constructed from chiral effective field theory. The nuclear force models and many-body methods are benchmarked to properties of isospin-symmetric nuclear matter in the vicinity of the saturation density as well as the virial expansion of the neutron matter equation of state at low fugacities. The free energy per particle of isospin-asymmetric nuclear matter is calculated assuming a quadratic dependence of the interaction contributions on the isospi…
Light clusters (mass number $A \leq 4$) in nuclear matter at subsaturation densities are described using a quantum statistical approach. In addition to self-energy and Pauli-blocking, effects of continuum correlations are taken into account to calculate the quasiparticle properties and abundances of light elements. Medium-modified quasiparticle properties are important ingredients to derive a nuclear matter equation of state applicable in the entire region of warm dense matter below saturation density. The influence of the nucleon-nucleon interaction on the quasiparticle shift is discussed.
We investigate the properties of isospin-symmetric nuclear matter and neutron stars in a chiral model approach adopting the SU(2) parity doublet formulation. This ansatz explicitly incorporates chiral symmetry restoration with the limit of degenerate masses of the nucleons and their parity partners. Instead of searching for an optimized parameter set we explore the general parameter dependence of nuclear matter and star properties in the model. We are able to get a good description of ground state nuclear matter as well as large values of mass for neutron stars in agreement with observation.
Spin-polarized symmetric nuclear matter is studied within the Dirac-Brueckner-Hartree-Fock approach. We pay particular attention to the difference between the one-body potentials of upward and downward polarized nucleons. This is formally analogous to the "Lane potential" for isospin-asymmetric nuclear matter. We point out the necessity for additional information on this fundamentally important quantity and suggest ways to constrain it.
We calculate self-consistent single-nucleon and single-Lambda potentials in hyperonic matter for different Lambda concentrations. The predictions include relativistic Dirac effects as reported previously in a calculation of the Lambda binding energy in symmetric nuclear matter. We discuss the dependence on momentum, density, and Lambda fraction.
We use an effective quark model to describe both hadronic matter and deconfined quark matter. By calculating the equations of state and the corresponding neutron star properties, we show that the internal properties of the nucleon have important implications for the properties of these systems.
Non-uniform structures of nuclear matter are studied in a wide density-range. Using the density functional theory with a relativistic mean-field model, we examine non-uniform structures at sub-nuclear densities (nuclear ``pastas'') and at high densities, where kaon condensate is expected. We try to give a unified view about the change of the matter structure as density increases, carefully taking into account the Coulomb screening effects from the viewpoint of first-order phase transition.
Employing QCD sum rules the in-medium modifications of scalar charm mesons in a cold nuclear matter environment are estimated. The mass splitting of D*-D*-bar is quantified.
The temperature dependence of the nuclear matter isovector symmetry energy coefficient ($\cA_{0,1}$) is investigated in the framework of the generalized nuclear polarizability with Skyrme interactions, as worked out in Refs. \cite{npa,prc}. The variation of $\cA_{0,1}(T)$ is very small (of the order of 1 MeV) for temperatures (T) in the range of 0 and 18 MeV. Different behaviors with temperature are found strongly depending on the Skyrme parameterization, in particular at densities lower than the saturation density $ρ_0$.
We investigate properties of nuclear matter and examine possible correlations with neutron star observables for a set of microscopic nuclear equations of state derived within the Brueckner-Hartree-Fock formalism employing compatible three-body forces. We find good candidates for a realistic nuclear EOS up to high density and confirm strong correlations between neutron star radius, tidal deformability, and the pressure of betastable matter. No correlations are found with the saturation properties of nuclear matter.
The phase diagram of nuclear matter is quite rich - it shows such phenomena as phase-transitions, formation of condensates, clustering, etc. From the analysis of the spinodal instability, one can learn about the region of liquid-gas coexistence in nuclear matter at low densities and finite isospin asymmetries. In a recent paper, we have shown that asymmetric nuclear matter at sub-nuclear densities should undergo only one type of instability. The associated order parameter is dominated by the isoscalar density and so the transition is of liquid-gas type. The instability goes in the direction of…
When the $\bar{K}N$ system is submerged in nuclear medium the $\bar{K}N$ scattering amplitude and the final state branching ratios exhibit a strong energy dependence when going to energies below the $\bar{K}N$ threshold. A sharp increase of $\bar{K}N$ attraction below the $\bar{K}N$ threshold provides a link between shallow $\bar{K}$-nuclear potentials based on the chiral $\bar{K}N$ amplitude evaluated at threshold and the deep phenomenological optical potentials obtained in fits to kaonic atoms data. We show the energy dependence of the in-medium $K^{-}p$ amplitude and demonstrate the impact …
The baryon self-energies are expressed in terms of the QCD condensates of the lowest dimension in symmetric and asymmetric nuclear matter within the QCD sum-rule approach. The self-energies are shown to satisfy the Gell-Mann--Okubo relations in the linear SU(3) breaking approximation. The results are in qualitative agreement with those obtained by the standard nuclear physics methods.
Nuclear and neutron matters are investigated in the low density region, well below the nuclear saturation density. Microscopic calculations, based on the Bethe-Brueckner approach with a few realistic nucleon-nucleon potentials, are compared with the predictions of a set of phenomenological effective interactions, mostly employed in nuclear structure studies. An energy functional is constructed on the basis of the microscopic bulk EoS and applied to a selection of nuclei throughout the mass table. The results provide a microscopic basis for a link between nuclear surface behaviour and neutron E…
