A precise understanding of the equation of state (EOS) of dense and hot matter is key to modeling relativistic astrophysical environments, including core-collapse supernovae (CCSNe), protoneutron star (PNSs) evolution, and compact binary mergers. In this paper, we extend the microscopic zero-temperature BL (Bombaci and Logoteta) %nuclear equation of state nuclear EOS %derived by Bombaci and Logoteta to finite temperature and arbitrary nuclear composition. We employ this new EOS to describe hot $β$-stable nuclear matter and to compute various structural properties of nonrotating PNS. %protoneutron stars. We also apply the EOS to perform dynamical simulations of a spherically symmetric CCSN. The EOS is derived using the finite temperature extension of the Brueckner--Bethe--Goldstone quantum many-body theory in the Brueckner--Hartree--Fock approximation. Neutron star properties are computed by solving the Tolman--Oppenheimer--Volkoff structure equations numerically. The sperically symmetric CCSN simulations are performed using the AGILE-IDSA code. Our EOS models are able to reproduce typical features of both PNS and spherically symmetric CCSN simulations. In addition, our EOS model is consistent with present measured neutron star masses and particularly with the masses: $M = 2.01 \pm 0.04 \, M_{\odot}$ and $M = 2.14^{+0.20}_{-0.18} \, M_{\odot}$ of the neutron stars in PSR~J0348+0432 and PSR J0740+6620 respectively. Finally, we suggest a feasible mechanism to produce low-mass black holes ($M \sim 2M_{\odot}$) that could have far-reaching consequences for interpreting the gravitational wave event GW190814 as a BH--BH merger.
We study the properties of hot beta-stable nuclear matter using equations of state derived within the Brueckner-Hartree-Fock approach at finite temperature including consistent three-body forces. Simple and accurate parametrizations of the finite-temperature equations of state are provided. The properties of hot neutron stars are then investigated within this framework, in particular the temperature dependence of the maximum mass. We find very small temperature effects and analyze the interplay of the different contributions.
We investigate the adiabatic index $Γ_{\mathrm{th}}$ of hot and dense nuclear matter from chiral effective field theory and find that the results are systematically larger than from typical mean field models. We start by constructing the finite-temperature equation of state from chiral two- and three-nucleon forces, which we then use to fit a class of extended Skyrme energy density functionals. This allows for modeling the thermal index across the full range of densities and temperatures that may be probed in simulations of core-collapse supernovae and neutron star mergers, including the low-d…
We calculate the neutrino mean free path and the Equation of State of pure neutron matter at finite temperature within a selfconsistent scheme based on the Brueckner--Hartree--Fock approximation. We employ the nucleon-nucleon part of the recent realistic baryon-baryon interaction (model NSC97e) constructed by the Nijmegen group. The temperatures considered range from 10 to 80 MeV. We report on the calculation of the mean field, the residual interaction and the neutrino mean free path including short and long range correlations given by the Brueckner--Hartree--Fock plus Random Phase Approximati…
Thermodynamics allows the application of Statistical Mechanics to finite and even small systems. As surface effects cannot be scaled away, one has to be careful with the standard arguments of splitting a system into two or bringing two systems into thermal contact with energy or particle exchange: Not only the volume part of the entropy must be considered. The addition of any other macroscopic constraint like a dividing surface, or the enforcement of gradients of the energy/particle reduce the entropy. As will be shown here, when removing such constraint in regions of a negative heat capacity,…
A systematic study of the microscopic and thermodynamical properties of pure neutron matter at finite temperature within the Self-Consistent Green's Function approach is performed. The model dependence of these results is analyzed by both comparing the results obtained with two different microscopic interactions, the CD-BONN and the Argonne V18 potentials, and by analyzing the results obtained with other approaches, such as the Brueckner--Hartree--Fock approximation, the variational approach and the virial expansion.
Equilibrium properties of infinite relativistic hadron matter are investigated using the Ultrarelativistic Quantum Molecular Dynamics (UrQMD) model. The simulations are performed in a box with periodic boundary conditions. Equilibration times depend critically on energy and baryon densities. Energy spectra of various hadronic species are shown to be isotropic and consistent with a single temperature in equilibrium. The variation of energy density versus temperature shows a Hagedorn-like behavior with a limiting temperature of 130$\pm$10 MeV. Comparison of abundances of different particle speci…
A set of microscopic, covariant density-functional, and non-relativistic Skyrme-type equations of state is employed to study the structure of purely nucleonic neutron stars at finite temperature. After examining the agreement with presently available astrophysical observational constraints, we find that the magnitude of thermal effects depends on the nucleon effective mass as well as on the stiffness of the cold equation of state. We evidence a fairly small but model-dependent effect of finite temperature on stellar stability that is correlated with the relative thermal pressure inside the sta…
Microcanonical Thermodynamics allows the application of Statistical Mechanics on one hand to closed finite and even small systems and on the other to the largest,self-gravitating ones. However, one has to reconsider the fundamental principles of Statistical Mechanics especially its key quantity, entropy. Whereas in conventional Thermostatistics the homogeneity and extensivity of the system and the concavity of its entropy S(E) are central conditions, these fail for the systems considered here. E.g. at phase separation the entropy S(E) is necessarily convex to make e^{S(E)-E/T} bimodal in E (th…
We consider a transport equation of the Boltzmann-Langevin type for non-Abelian plasmas close to equilibrium to derive the spectral functions of the underlying microscopic fluctuations from the entropy. The correlator of the stochastic source is obtained from the dissipative processes in the plasma. This approach, based on classical transport theory, exploits the well-known link between a linearized collision integral, the entropy and the spectral functions. Applied to the ultra-soft modes of a hot non-Abelian (classical or quantum) plasma, the resulting spectral functions agree with earlier f…
We introduce a combined macroscopic/microscopic transport approach employing relativistic hydrodynamics for the early, dense, deconfined stage of the reaction and a microscopic non-equilibrium model for the later hadronic stage where the equilibrium assumptions are not valid anymore. Within this approach we study the dynamics of hot, bulk QCD matter, which is expected to be created in ultra-relativistic heavy ion collisions at the SPS, the RHIC and the LHC. Our approach is capable of self-consistently calculating the freeze-out of the hadronic system, while accounting for the collective flow o…
Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov calculations of hot fission in $^{240}\textrm{Pu}$ have been performed with a newly-implemented code that uses the D1S finite-range effective interaction. The hot-scission line is identified in the quadrupole-octupole-moment coordinate space. Fission-fragment shapes are extracted from the calculations. A benchmark calculation for $^{226}\textrm{Th}$ is obtained and compared to results in the literature. In addition, technical aspects of the use of HFB calculations for fission studies are examined in detail. In particular, the identification of scission configurations, t…
In this work, we study the effects of temperature on magnetic white dwarfs. We model their interior as a nuclei lattice surrounded by a relativistic free Fermi gas of electrons, accounting for effects from temperature, Landau levels and anomalous magnetic moment. We find that, at low densities (corresponding to the outer regions of star), both temperature and magnetic field effects play an important role in the calculation of microscopic thermodynamical quantities. To study macroscopic stellar structures within a general-relativistic approach, we solve numerically the coupled Einstein's-Maxwel…
The consecutive microscopic solution is presented of the problem of tunneling of a particle through a potential barrier. The method is applied to the alpha and proton decay of compound systems formed in fusion reaction. Appearance of the peaks in the spectrum of emitted particles is predicted. The peaks correspond to quasistationary states inside the potential barrier.
The production of antibaryons is calculated in a microscopic transport approach employing multiple meson fusion reactions according to detailed balance relations with respect to baryon-antibaryon annihilation. It is found that the abundancies of antiprotons as observed from peripheral to central collisions of $Pb + Pb$ at the SPS and $Au + Au$ at the AGS can approximately be described on the basis of multiple interactions of 'formed' hadronic states which drive the system to chemical equilibrium by flavor exchange or quark rearrangement reactions.
We present a microscopic approach to dynamical pionisation of the hot quark-gluon matter formed in ultrarelativistic heavy ion collisions. The time evolution of the system is described assuming that quarks undergo Brownian motion in a thermal bath provided by the gluons. The rate of hadronization as well as the time dependence of the temperature of the system are seen to be quite sensitive to the QCD $Λ$ parameter. Even in a non-equilibrium scenario, we find that there appears a clear hint of a first order phase transition.
The kinetics of chiral transitions in hot and dense quark matter is studied via a microscopic framework (Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model) and a phenomenological model (Ginzburg-Landau free energy). We focus on the far-from-equilibrium ordering dynamics subsequent to a quench from the massless quark phase to the massive quark phase. The morphology of the ordering system is characterized by the scaling of the order-parameter correlation function. The domain growth process obeys the Allen-Cahn growth law, $L(t)\sim t^{1/2}$. We also study the growth of bubble of the stable massive phase in a background …
Nucleon effective masses are studied in the framework of the Brueckner-Hartree-Fock many-body approach at finite temperature. Self-consistent calculations using the Argonne $V_{18}$ interaction including microscopic three-body forces are reported for varying temperature and proton fraction up to several times the nuclear saturation density. Our calculations are based on the exact treatment of the center-of-mass momentum instead of the average-momentum approximation employed in previous works. We discuss in detail the effects of the temperature together with those of the three-body forces, the …
The decrease in the symmetry energy of hot nuclei populated in $^{58}$Ni + $^{58}$Ni, $^{58}$Fe + $^{58}$Ni and $^{58}$Fe + $^{58}$Fe reactions at beam energies of 30, 40, and 47 MeV/nucleon, as a function of excitation energy is studied. It is observed that this decrease is mainly a consequence of increasing expansion or decreasing density rather than the increasing temperature. The results are in good agreement with the recently reported microscopic calculation based on the Thomas-Fermi approach. An empirical relation to study the symmetry energy of finite nuclei in various mass region is pr…
We explore the use of mean field models to approximate microscopic nuclear equations of state derived from chiral effective field theory across the densities and temperatures relevant for simu- lating astrophysical phenomena such as core-collapse supernovae and binary neutron star mergers. We consider both relativistic mean field theory with scalar and vector meson exchange as well as energy density functionals based on Skyrme phenomenology and compare to thermodynamic equa- tions of state derived from chiral two- and three-nucleon forces in many-body perturbation theory. Quantum Monte Carlo s…
We add an ensemble of nuclei to the equation of state for homogeneous nucleonic matter to generate a new set of models suitable for astrophysical simulations of core-collapse supernovae and neutron star mergers. We implement empirical constraints from (i) nuclear mass measurements, (ii) proton-proton scattering phase shifts, and (iii) neutron star observations. Our model is also guided by microscopic many-body theory calculations based on realistic nuclear forces, including the zero-temperature neutron matter equation of state from quantum Monte Carlo simulations and thermal contributions to t…
We study how the frequencies and damping times of oscillations of a newly born, hot proto-neutron star depend on the physical quantities which characterize the star quasi-stationary evolution which follows the bounce. Stellar configurations are modeled using a microscopic equation of state obtained within the Brueckner-Hartree-Fock, nuclear many-body approach, extended to the finite-temperature regime. We discuss the mode frequency behaviour as function of the lepton composition, and of the entropy gradients which prevail in the interior of the star. We find that, in the very early stages, gra…
The main result of this study consists in working out a microscopic description of collective motion in hot nuclei, allowing to express the parameters of a phenomenological collective model in terms of nucleonic quantities.
Structure of cold dense matter at subnuclear densities is investigated by quantum molecular dynamics (QMD) simulations. We succeeded in showing that the phases with slab-like and rod-like nuclei etc. can be formed dynamically from hot uniform nuclear matter without any assumptions on nuclear shape. We also observe intermediate phases, which has complicated nuclear shapes. Geometrical structures of matter are analyzed with Minkowski functionals, and it is found out that intermediate phases can be characterized as ones with negative Euler characteristic. Our result suggests the existence of thes…
A microscopic approach to the proton-neutron nuclear response is formulated in the finite-temperature relativistic nuclear field theory framework. The approach is based on the meson-nucleon Lagrangian of quantum hadrodynamics and advances the relativistic field theory for spin-isospin response beyond the finite-temperature random phase approximation. The dynamical contribution to the in-medium proton-neutron interaction amplitude is described in a parameter-free way by the coupling between the single nucleons and strongly-correlated particle-hole excitations (phonons) within the newly develope…
The relaxation of hot nuclear matter to an equilibrated state in the central zone of heavy-ion collisions at energies from AGS to RHIC is studied within the microscopic UrQMD model. It is found that the system reaches the (quasi)equilibrium stage for the period of 10-15 fm/$c$. Within this time the matter in the cell expands nearly isentropically with the entropy to baryon ratio $S/A = 150 - 170$. Thermodynamic characteristics of the system at AGS and at SPS energies at the endpoints of this stage are very close to the parameters of chemical and thermal freeze-out extracted from the thermal fi…
