The effective-surface approximation is extended taking into account derivatives of the symmetry-energy density per particle with respect to the mean particle density. The isoscalar and isovector particle densities in this extended effective-surface approximation are derived. The improved expressions of the surface symmetry energy, in particular, its surface tension coefficients in the sharp-edged proton-neutron asymmetric nuclei take into account important gradient terms of the energy density functional. For most Skyrme forces the surface symmetry-energy constants and the corresponding neutron skins and isovector stiffnesses are calculated as functions of the Swiatecki derivative of the nongradient term of the symmetry-energy density per particle with respect to the isoscalar density. Using the analytical isovector surface-energy constants in the framework of the Fermi-liquid droplet model we find energies and sum rules of the isovector giant-dipole resonance structure in a reasonable agreement with the experimental data, and they are compared with other theoretical approaches.
From general Fermi liquid theory arguments, we derive correlations among the symmetry energy (J), its slope parameter (L), and curvature (K_sym) at nuclear matter saturation density. We argue that certain properties of these correlations do not depend on details of the nuclear forces used in the calculation. We derive as well a global parametrization of the density dependence of the symmetry energy that we show is more reliable, especially at low densities, than the usual Taylor series expansion around saturation density. We then benchmark these predictions against explicit results from chiral…
An alternative way to constrain the density dependence of the symmetry energy with the slope of the neutron skin thickness of nuclei which shows a linear relation to both the isospin asymmetry and the nuclear charge with a form of Z^{2/3} is proposed. The linear dependence of the neutron skin thickness on the nuclear charge and isospin asymmetry is systematically studied with the data from antiprotonic atom measurement experimentally and the extended Thomas-Fermi approach incorporated the Skyrme energy density functional theoretically. An obviously linear relationship between the slope paramet…
In the first part of this paper, we present a study of the symmetry energy ($a_s$) and its slope parameter ($L$) for nuclear matter in the framework of the Fermi liquid theory of Landau and Migdal. We derive an exact relation between $a_s$ and $L$, which involves the nucleon effective masses and three-particle Landau-Migdal parameters. We present simple estimates which suggest that there are two main mechanisms to explain the empirical values of $L$: The proton-neutron effective mass difference in isospin asymmetric matter and the $\ell=0$ moment of the isovector in-medium three-particle scatt…
Four quantities deducible from nuclear structure experiments have been claimed to correlate to the slope parameter $L$ of the symmetry energy; the neutron skin thickness, the cross section of low-energy dipole (LED) mode, dipole polarizability $α_D$, and $α_D S_0$ (i.e. product of $α_D$ and the symmetry energy $S_0$). By the calculations in the Hartree-Fock plus random-phase approximation with various effective interactions, we compare the correlations between $L$ and these four quantities. The correlation derived from different interactions and the correlation from a class of interactions tha…
The relation between the slope of the nuclear symmetry energy at saturation density and the neutron skin thickness is investigated. Constraints on the slope of the symmetry energy are deduced from the neutron skin data obtained in experiments with antiprotonic atoms. Two types of neutron skin are distinguished: the "surface" and the "bulk". A combination of both types forms neutron skin in most of nuclei. A prescription to calculate neutron skin thickness and the slope of symmetry energy parameter $L$ from the parity violating asymmetry measured in the PREX experiment is proposed.
We study the impact of the nuclear symmetry energy and its density dependence on the α-decay process. Within the frame work of the performed cluster model and the energy density formalism, we use different parameterizations of the Skyrme energy density functionals that yield different equations of state EOSs. Each EOS is characterized by a particular symmetry-energy coefficient (asym) and a corresponding density-slope parameters L. The stepwise trends of the neutron (proton) skin thickness of the involved nuclei with both asym and L do not clarify the obtained oscillating behaviors of the α-de…
Using relativistic Hartree-Fock (RHF) approximation, we study the effect of Fock terms on the nuclear properties not only around the saturation density, $ρ_{0}$, but also at higher densities. In particular, we investigate how the momentum dependence due to the exchange contribution affects the nuclear symmetry energy and its slope parameter, using the Lorentz-covariant decomposition of nucleon self-energies in an extended version of the RHF model, in which the exchange terms are adjusted so as to reproduce the single-nucleon potential at $ρ_{0}$. We find that the Fock contribution suppresses t…
Analyses that connect astrophysical observations of neutron stars with nuclear matter properties sometimes rely on equation-of-state insensitive relations. We show that the slope of the binary Love relations (i.e.~between the tidal deformabilities of binary neutron stars) encodes the rate of change of the nuclear matter speed of sound below three times nuclear saturation density. Twin stars lead to relations that present a signature ''hill'', ''drop'', and ''swoosh'' due to the second (mass-radius) stable branch, requiring a new description of the binary love relations.
We present a new statistical tool based on random sampling to assess the confidence interval of Pearson's and Spearman's correlation coefficients. These estimators are then used to quantify the statistical correlations among the neutron skin thickness of atomic nuclei and the slope of the symmetry energy in the infinite nuclear medium.
The formation of $α$-particle clusters on the surface of heavy nuclei is described in a generalized relativistic mean-field model with explicit cluster degrees of freedom. The effects on the size of the neutron skin of Sn nuclei and ${}^{208}$Pb are investigated as a function of the mass number and the isospin-dependent part of the effective interaction, respectively. The correlation of the neutron skin thickness with the difference of the neutron and proton numbers and with the slope of the nuclear symmetry energy is modified as compared to the mean-field calculation without alpha-cluster cor…
We study low-energy dipole excitations in the unstable nucleus $^{68}$Ni with the beyond-mean-field (BMF) subtracted second random-phase-approximation (SSRPA) model based on Skyrme interactions. First, strength distributions are compared with available experimental data and transition densities of some selected peaks are analyzed. The so-called isospin splitting is also discussed by studying the isoscalar/isovector character of such excitations. We estimate then in an indirect way BMF effects on the symmetry energy of infinite matter and on its slope starting from the BMF SSRPA low-lying stren…
The neutron-skin thickness of asymmetric semi-infinite nuclear matter is shown to be a function of Coulomb energy, the asymmetry-energy coefficient($J$), the slope($L$) of the asymmetry energy, and the incompressibility coefficient, in addition to he Fermi momentum and the asymmetry parameter. The relational formula is derived on the basis of the Hugenholtz-Van Hove theorem in the mean-field approximation for nuclear matter. Using the formula as a guide, the neutron-skin thickness($δR$) in $^{208}$Pb is examined. The linear correlation between $L$ and $δR$ appears as a kind of spurious ones th…
We examine the correlations of neutron star radii with the nuclear matter incompressibility, symmetry energy, and their slopes, which are the key parameters of the equation of state (EoS) of asymmetric nuclear matter. The neutron star radii and the EoS parameters are evaluated using a representative set of 24 Skyrme-type effective forces and 18 relativistic mean field models, and two microscopic calculations, all describing 2$M_\odot$ neutron stars. Unified EoSs for the inner-crust-core region have been built for all the phenomenological models, both relativistic and non-relativistic. Our inve…
By using point-coupling versions of finite range nuclear relativistic mean field models containing cubic and quartic self interactions in the scalar field $σ$, a nonrelativistic limit is achieved. This approach allows an analytical expression for the symmetry energy ($J$) as a function of its slope ($L$) in a unified form, namely, $\,L\,=\,3J\,+f(m^{*},ρ_{o},B_{o},K_{o})$, where the quantities $m^{*}$, $ρ_{o}$, $B_{o}$ and $K_{o}$ are bulk parameters at the nuclear matter saturation density $ρ_{o}$. This result establishes a linear correlation between $L$ and $J$ which is reinforced by exact r…
In this work, we study the effects of nuclear symmetry energy slope on neutron star dense matter equation of state and its impact on neutron star observables (mass-radius, tidal response). We construct the equation of state within the framework of covariant density functional theory implementing coupling schemes of non-linear and density-dependent models with viability of heavier non-nucleonic degrees of freedom. The slope of symmetry energy parameter ($L_{\text{sym}}$) is adjusted following density-dependence of isovector meson coupling to baryons. We find that smaller values of $L_{\text{sym…
The joint effect of the density dependence of the symmetry energy and strangeness content on the structure of cold neutron stars is studied within the framework of a relativistic mean field theory. It is shown that 2$M_\odot$ are obtained for repulsive $YY$ interaction and preferably for a small or a large slope $L$. An attractive $Σ$ potential in nuclear matter will favor the appearance of strangeness in stars with a mass as small as $\sim 1 M_\odot$, if, however it is repulsive only stars with a mass $\gtrsim 1.4 M_\odot$ will contain strangeness. The joint effect of reducing the symmetry en…
We use a finite range simple effective interaction to construct nuclear equations of state for the study of the density dependence of the nuclear symmetry energy. The EoSs provide good descriptions of the nuclear symmetry energy at a subsaturation density $ρ_c=0.11$ fm$^{-3}$ and at a density around two times the saturation density $ρ_0$. We obtain a correlation between the neutron skin thickness in $^{208}$Pb and the density slope parameter at the subsaturation density. A linear relation is obtained between the neutron skin thickness and the parameter $β^{\prime}=\frac{L(ρ_c)}{3E_s(ρ_0)}$, wh…
The effect of correlations between the slope and the curvature of the symmetry energy on ground state nuclear observables is studied within the extended Thomas-Fermi approximation. We consider different isovector probes of the symmetry energy, with a special focus on the skin of $^{208}{\rm Pb}$. We use a recently proposed meta-modelling technique to generate a large number of equation of state models, where the empirical parameters are independently varied. The results are compared to a set of calculations using 17 different Skyrme interactions. We show that the curvature parameter plays a no…
We study the impact of the symmetry energy on properties of nuclear pasta phases and crust-core transition in neutron stars. We perform a self-consistent Thomas--Fermi calculation employing the relativistic mean-field model. The properties of pasta phases presented in the inner crust of neutron stars are investigated and the crust-core transition is examined. It is found that the slope of the symmetry energy plays an important role in determining the pasta phase structure and the crust-core transition. The correlation between the symmetry energy slope and the crust-core transition density obta…
The correlations of the crust-core transition density and pressure in neutron stars with the slope of the symmetry energy and the neutron skin thickness are investigated, using different families of relativistic mean field parametrizations with constant couplings and non-linear terms mixing the $σ$, $ω$ and $ρ$-meson fields. It is shown that the modification of the density dependence of the symmetry energy, involving the $σ$ or the $ω$ meson, gives rise to different behaviors: the effect of the $ω$-meson may also be reproduced within non-relativistic phenomenological models, while the effect o…
Based on the Hugenholtz-Van Hove theorem, it is shown that both the symmetry energy E$_{sym}(ρ)$ and its density slope $L(ρ)$ at normal density $ρ_0$ are completely determined by the global nucleon optical potentials that can be extracted directly from nucleon-nucleus scatterings, (p,n) charge exchange reactions and single-particle energy levels of bound states. Adopting a value of $m^*/m=0.7$ for the nucleon effective k-mass in symmetric nuclear matter at $ρ_0$ and averaging all phenomenological isovector nucleon potentials constrained by world data available in the literature since 1969, the…
The symmetry energy coefficients for nuclei with mass number A=20~250 are extracted from more than 2000 measured nuclear masses. With the semi-empirical connection between the symmetry energy coefficients of finite nuclei and the nuclear symmetry energy at reference densities, we investigate the density dependence of symmetry energy of nuclear matter at subnormal densities. The obtained results are compared with those extracted from other methods.
Expressing explicitly the parameters of the standard Skyrme interaction in terms of the macroscopic properties of asymmetric nuclear matter, we show in the Skyrme-Hartree-Fock approach that unambiguous correlations exist between observables of finite nuclei and nuclear matter properties. We find that existing data on neutron skin thickness $Δr_{np}$ of Sn isotopes give an important constraint on the symmetry energy $E_{sym}({ρ_{0}})$ and its density slope $L$ at saturation density ${ρ_{0}}$. Combining these constraints with those from recent analyses of isospin diffusion and double neutron/pro…
A simple way to enforce the Adler zero condition for pion amplitudes in the nuclear medium is to use the Lovelace quantization condition but with modified Regge Slope $α'$ This latter is related to change in the gluon condensate. Increasing nuclear density leads to a relative increase in the Regge Slope $α'$ Denoting this increase by a scale factor $λ$, the drop in the $ρ$-mass, $Δ-N$ mass difference, increase in $ππ$ scattering length, decrease of pion decay constant etc. are simply related to $λ$.
In the present work, we use a finite range effective interaction to calculate the neutron skin thickness in $^{48}$Ca and correlate these quantities with the parameters of nuclear symmetry energy. Available experimental data on the neutron skin thickness in $^{48}$Ca are used to deduce information on the density slope parameter and the curvature symmetry parameter of the nuclear symmetry energy at saturation and at subsaturation densities. We obtained the constraints such as $54.5\leq L(ρ_0) \leq 97.5$ MeV and $47.3\leq L(ρ_c) \leq 57.1$ MeV for the density slope parameter. The constraints on …
Nuclear structure observables usually most effectively probe the properties of nuclear matter at subsaturation densities rather than at saturation density. We demonstrate that the electric dipole polarizibility $α_ {\text{D}}$ in $^{208}$Pb is sensitive to both the magnitude $E_{\text{sym}}(ρ_{\text{c}})$ and density slope $L(ρ_{\text{c}})$ of the symmetry energy at a subsaturation cross density $ρ_{\text{c}} = 0.11$ fm$^{-3}$. Using the experimental data of $α_ {\text{D}}$ in $^{208}$Pb from RCNP and the recent accurate constraint of $E_{\text{sym}}(ρ_{\text{c}})$ from the binding energy diff…
By using the functional path integral method, we obtain a model-independent formula for nuclear symmetry energy, which explicitly shows the relation between nuclear symmetry energy and isospin susceptibility. The latter one is found to be a probe to the QCD chiral phase transition. We further found that, the nuclear symmetry energy has an abrupt change at the critical nuclear density where the chiral symmetry restores partially, which could be detected from the experiments.
The radii and tidal deformabilities of neutron stars are investigated in the framework of relativistic mean-field (RMF) model with different density-dependent behaviors of symmetry energy. To study the effects of symmetry energy on the properties of neutron stars, an $ω$ meson and $ρ$ meson coupling term is included in a popular RMF Lagrangian, i.e. the TM1 parameter set, which is used for the widely used supernova equation of state (EoS) table. The coupling constants relevant to the vector-isovector meson, $ρ$, are refitted by a fixed symmetry energy at subsaturation density and its slope at …
Background: The nuclear symmetry energy $E_{sym}(ρ)$ encodes information about the energy necessary to make nuclear systems more neutron-rich. While its slope parameter L at the saturation density $ρ_0$ of nuclear matter has been relatively well constrained by recent astrophysical observations and terrestrial nuclear experiments, its curvature $K_{\rm{sym}}$ characterizing the $E_{sym}(ρ)$ around $2ρ_0$ remains largely unconstrained. Over 520 calculations for $E_{sym}(ρ)$ using various nuclear theories and interactions in the literature have predicted several significantly different $K_{\rm{sy…
In this work we study the influence of the symmetry energy and its slope on three major properties of neutron stars: the maximum mass, the radii of the canonical 1.4$M_\odot$ and the minimum mass that enables the direct URCA effect. We utilize four parametrizations of the relativistic quantum hadrodynamics and vary the symmetry energy within accepted values. We see that although the maximum mass is almost independent of it, the radius of the canonical $1.4M_\odot$ and the mass that enables the direct URCA effect is strongly correlated with the symmetry energy and its slope. Also, since we expe…
Using the relativistic mean-field theory, we adopt two different methods, namely, the coexisting phase method and the self-consistent Thomas-Fermi approximation, to study the impacts of the nuclear symmetry energy on properties of neutron star crusts within a wide range of densities. It is found that the nuclear symmetry energy and its density slope play an important role in determining the pasta phases and the crust-core transition.
The aim of this work is to study how the thermodynamic temperature is related to the known thermometers for nuclei especially in view of studying the microcanonical phase transition. We find within the MMMC-model that the "S-shape" of the caloric equation of state e^*(T) which is the signal of a phase transition in a system with conserved energy, can be seen in the experimentally accessible slope temperatures T_slope for different particle types and also in the isotopic temperatures T_He-Li. The isotopic temperatures T_H-He are weaker correlated to the shape of the thermodynamic temperature an…
Extrapolations from nuclei to neutron stars hinge on the symmetry term in nuclear binding formulas. The term describes reduction in the binding associated with neutron-proton (np) imbalance. Regrettably, binding formulas in the literature commonly lack an intrinsic consistency with regard to the symmetry term. Our elementary considerations determine the universal macroscopic limit for the term and predict its weakening in light nuclei due to emergence of the nuclear asymmetry-skin. Experimental systematic of isobaric-analogue states allows for a determination of the volume and surface coeffici…
The liquid-gas phase transition in hot asymmetric nuclear matter is investigated within relativistic mean-field model using the density dependence of nuclear symmetry energy constrained from the measured neutron skin thickness of finite nuclei. We find symmetry energy has a significant influence on several features of liquid-gas phase transition. The boundary and area of the liquid-gas coexistence region, the maximal isospin asymmetry and the critical values of pressure and isospin asymmetry all of which systematically increase with increasing softness in the density dependence of symmetry ene…
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…
Using the relativistic impulse approximation with empirical NN scattering amplitude and the nuclear scalar and vector densities from the relativistic mean-field theory, we evaluate the Dirac optical potential for neutrons and protons in asymmetric nuclear matter. From the resulting Schrö% dinger-equivalent potential, the high energy behavior of the nuclear symmetry potential is studied. We find that the symmetry potential at fixed baryon density is essentially constant once the nucleon kinetic energy is greater than about 500 MeV. Moreover, for such high energy nucleon, the symmetry potential …
The effect of density dependent symmetry energy on nuclear-stopping is studied using isospin-dependent quantum molecular dynamics model(IQMD). We have used the reduced isospin-dependent cross-section with soft(S) equation of state for the systems having different isostopic content, to explore the various aspects of nuclear stopping. The aim is to pin down the nature of the nuclear stopping with density dependent symmetry energy. Nuclear stopping is found to be sensitive towards the various forms of the density dependent symmetry energy. The nuclear stopping tends to decrease for the stiffer eq…
We examine how nuclear masses are related to the density dependence of the symmetry energy. Using a macroscopic nuclear model we calculate nuclear masses in a way dependent on the equation of state of asymmetric nuclear matter. We find by comparison with empirical two-proton separation energies that a smaller symmetry energy at subnuclear densities, corresponding to a larger density symmetry coefficient L, is favored. This tendency, which is clearly seen for nuclei that are neutron-rich, nondeformed, and light, can be understood from the property of the surface symmetry energy in a compressibl…
These are personal recollections of how Gerry Brown's work and thinking influenced the development of the chiral effective Lagrangian based theory of nuclear forces.
Using the Hellmann--Feynman theorem we analyze the contribution of the different terms of the nucleon-nucleon interaction to the nuclear symmetry energy $E_{sym}$ and the slope parameter $L$. The analysis is performed within the microscopic Brueckner--Hartree--Fock approach using the Argonne V18 potential plus the Urbana IX three-body force. We find that the main contribution to $E_{sym}$ and $L$ is due to the tensor component of the nuclear force.
The YGLO (Yang-Grasso-Lacroix-Orsay) functional is applied for the first time to investigate ground-state properties of different isotopic chains, from Oxygen to Lead. Mean-field Hartree-Fock calculations are carried out to analyze global trends for separation energies, binding energies, radii, neutron skins, and density profiles. We have three objectives: i) we study whether this functional leads to a reasonable description of ground-state properties (despite the fact that it was not adjusted on nuclei) and we discuss the associated limitations; ii) we investigate whether the correct descript…
A study of the correlation between nuclear temperatures and symmetry energy is presented for heavy-ion collisions at intermediate energies via the isospin-dependent quantum molecular-dynamics model. It is found that different symmetry energy parameters will change the density and kinetic energy distribution of the hot nuclei. More importantly, nuclear temperatures that are based on kinetic energy properties can be used to study symmetry energy information.
Interplay between the dependence of symmetry energy on density and the variation of nucleonic densities across nuclear surface is discussed. That interplay gives rise to the mass dependence of the symmetry coefficient in an energy formula. Charge symmetry of the nuclear interactions allows to introduce isoscalar and isovector densities that are approximately independent of the magnitude of neutron-proton asymmetry.
We review the main achievements of the research programme for the study of nuclear forces in the framework of chiral symmetry and discuss some problems which are still open.
The pervasive role of the nuclear symmetry energy in establishing some nuclear static and dynamical properties, and in governing some attributes of neutron star properties is highlighted.
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.
Information about the nuclear matter under the extreme conditions of temperature and density and the role of symmetry energy under these conditions is still a topic of crucial importance in the present day nuclear physics research. The multifragmentation, collective flow and the nuclear stopping is among the various rare phenomenon which can be observed in heavy-ion collisions at intermediate energies. The nuclear stopping, which is sensitive towards the symmetry energy has gained a lot of interest because it provides the possibility to examine the degree of thermalization or equilibration in …
We recall the main features of the Td (tetrahedral) symmetry in atomic nuclei and present realistic mean-field calculations supporting the existence such a symmetry all over the nuclear chart. A few potential candidate-nuclei are investigated and the possible experimental signatures of the tetrahedral symmetry are also briefly discussed.
We investigate the effects of the symmetry energy on nuclear pasta phases and the crust-core transition in neutron stars. We employ the relativistic mean-field approach and the coexisting phases method to study the properties of pasta phases presented in the inner crust of neutron stars. It is found that the slope of the nuclear symmetry energy at saturation density plays an important role in the crust-core transition and pasta phase properties. The correlation between the symmetry energy slope and the crust-core transition density obtained in this study is consistent with those obtained by ot…
A linear correlation is shown quantitatively between the magnitude of the EMC effect measured in electron deep inelastic scattering (DIS) and the nuclear residual strong interaction energy (RSIE) obtained from nuclear binding energy subtracting the Coulomb energy contribution. This phenomenological relationship is used to extract the size of in-medium correction (IMC) effect on deuteron and to predict the EMC slopes $|dR_{EMC}/dx|$ of various nuclei. We further investigate the correlations between RSIE and other quantities which are related to the EMC effect. The observed correlations among RS…
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…
The Interacting Boson Model of nuclear structure is introduced to the unitarity limit. Non relativistic conformal symmetry creates a scale invariant state from which the stationary states of atomic nuclei are obtained. A brief discussion of the nature of the conformal field theory is included along with the BCS-BEC crossover and hydrodynamic properties.
Within a dynamical description of nuclear fragmentation, based on the liquid-gas phase transition scenario, we explore the relation between neutron-proton density fluctuations and nuclear symmetry energy. We show that, along the fragmentation path, isovector fluctuations follow the evolution of the local density and approach an equilibrium value connected to the local symmetry energy. Higher density regions are characterized by smaller average asymmetry and narrower isotopic distributions. This dynamical analysis points out that fragment final state isospin fluctuations can probe the symmetry …
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.
