Neutron Skin Thickness of Nuclei and Effective Nucleon-Nucleon Interactions

The Skyrme energy density functional is applied to study the ground state properties of a series of finite nuclei. The charge rms radii, neutron rms radii, and the neutron skin thickness for some nuclei are calculated and compared with the experimental data. The constraint on the effective interactions, especially, the density dependence of the isospin-dependent. part of Skyrme interactions is extracted by the data of neutron skin thicknesses of ^208Pb and isotopes of Sn.     

Links between heavy ion and astrophysics

Heavy-ion experiments provide important data to test astrophysical models. The high-density equation of state can be probed in HI collisions and applied to the hot protoneutron star formed in core collapse supernovae. The parity radius experiment (PREX) aims to accurately measure the neutron radius of ²⁰⁸Pb with parity-violating electron scattering. This determines the pressure of neutron-rich matter and the density dependence of the symmetry energy. Competition between nuclear attraction and Coulomb repulsion can form exotic shapes called nuclear pasta in neutron star crusts and supernovae. This competition can be probed with multifragmentation HI reactions. We use large-scale semiclassical simulations to study nonuniform neutron-rich matter in supernovae. We find that the Coulomb interactions in astrophysical systems suppress density fluctuations. As a result, there is no first-order liquid-vapor phase transition. Finally, the virial expansion for low-density matter shows that the nuclear vapor phase is complex with significant concentrations of alpha particles and other light nuclei in addition to free nucleons.     

核物质的对称能与中子皮厚度(英文)

在现有的平均场模型中引入同位旋相关的高阶修正项．研究了核物质对称能的密度依赖性和。^208Pb的中子皮厚度。采用新提出的PK1相互作用以及NL3．S271和Z271相互作用．得到核物质饱和点对称能的范围为29-38MeV以及相应的^208Pb中子皮厚度为0．17—0.28fm．在所有相互作用中，核物质饱和点的对称能与^208Pb的中子皮厚度近似呈线性关系。After adding isospin dependent high order correction terms to existing relativistic mean field models (RMF), the density dependence of symmetry energy and the neutron skin thickness S for 208Pb are studied. Using the new effective interaction PK1, together with NL3, S271 and Z271, a range of 29—38 MeV for the symmetry energy for nuclear matter at saturation point and the corresponding neutron skin thickness S = 0.14—0.28 fm for 208Pb are obtained. For all effective interactions, a linear relation between the symmetry energy at saturation point and the neutron skin thickness for 208Pb is observed.     

Disentangling the Effects of Thickness of the Neutron Skin and Symmetry Potential in Nucleon Induced Reactions on Sn Isotopes

The effects of density dependence of symmetry energy and the thickness of the neutron skin in proton （neutron） induced reactions on Sn isotopes are investigated by means of the improved molecular dynamics model. The investigation shows that the target size dependence of the reaction cross sections for proton induced reactions on Sn isotopes is sensitive to the density dependence of the symmetry energy and less sensitive to the thickness of the neutron skin of the target nuclei, but that, for neutron induced reactions on Sn isotopes, it is less sensitive to the density dependence of the symmetry energy and sensitive to the thickness of the neutron skin of the target nucleus.     

The symmetry energy in nuclei and in nuclear matter

We discuss to what extent information on ground-state properties of finite nuclei (energies and radii) can be used to obtain constraints on the symmetry energy in nuclear matter and its dependence on the density. The starting point is a generalized Weizs?cker formula for ground-state energies. In particular, effects from the Wigner energy and shell structure on the symmetry energy are investigated. Strong correlations in the parameter space prevent a clear isolation of the surface contribution. Use of neutron skin information improves the situation. The result of the analysis appears consistent with a rather soft density dependence of the symmetry energy in nuclear matter.     

Charge Density of ^23,24O with Isoscalar-Isovector Coupling Terms

The nonlinear isoscalar-isovector terms which are used to simulate the density dependence of the symmetry energy are considered in the relativistic mean field model. The charge density distributions of ^23,24O are investigated by considering the contribution from the isoscalar-isovector couplings. Contrarily to the uncertainty of the neutron radius of ^208Pb, a considerable uncertainty exists for the charge radii of ^23,24O. The data-to-data correlation between the neutron thickness of ^208Pb and that of ^23,24O is enhanced by the inclusion of the pNN tensor coupling. This enhancement is closely related to the structural factor, the 2s1/2 occupation of the out-layer neutrons.     

The lead nucleus as a miniature surrogate for a neutron star

The nucleus of ²⁰⁸Pb, a system 18 orders of magnitude smaller and 55 orders of magnitude lighter than a neutron star, may be used as a miniature surrogate to establish important correlations between its neutron skin and several neutron-star properties. Indeed, models with a thicker neutron skin in ²⁰⁸Pb generate larger neutron stars that have a lower liquid-to-solid transition density. Further, we illustrate how the correlation between the neutron skin in ²⁰⁸Pb and the radius of a 1.4 solar-mass neutron star may be used to place important constraints on the equation of state of neutron-rich matter and how it may help elucidate the existence of a phase transition at the core of the star.     

Isospin asymmetry in nuclei, neutron stars and heavy-ion collisions

The roles of isospin asymmetry in nuclei and neutron stars are investigated using a range of potential and field-theoretical models of nucleonic matter. The parameters of these models are fixed by fitting the properties of homogeneous bulk matter and closed-shell nuclei. We discuss and unravel the causes of correlations among the neutron skin thickness in heavy nuclei, the pressure of beta-equilibrated matter at a density of 0.1 fm^?3, and the radii of moderate mass neutron stars. The influence of symmetry energy on observables in heavy-ion collisions is summarized.     

Constraints on the symmetry energy using the mass-radius relation of neutron stars

The nuclear symmetry energy is intimately connected with nuclear astrophysics. This contribution focuses on the estimation of the symmetry energy from experiment and how it is related to the structure of neutron stars. The most important connection is between the radii of neutron stars and the pressure of neutron star matter in the vicinity of the nuclear saturation density n_s. This pressure is essentially controlled by the nuclear symmetry energy parameters S_v and L , the first two coefficients of a Taylor expansion of the symmetry energy around n_s. We discuss constraints on these parameters that can be found from nuclear experiments. We demonstrate that these constraints are largely model-independent by deriving them qualitatively from a simple nuclear model. We also summarize how recent theoretical studies of pure neutron matter can reinforce these constraints. To date, several different astrophysical measurements of neutron star radii have been attempted. Attention is focused on photospheric radius expansion bursts and on thermal emissions from quiescent low-mass X-ray binaries. While none of these observations can, at the present time, determine individual neutron star radii to better than 20% accuracy, the body of observations can be used with Bayesian techniques to effectively constrain them to higher precision. These techniques invert the structure equations and obtain estimates of the pressure-density relation of neutron star matter, not only near n_s, but up to the highest densities found in neutron star interiors. The estimates we derive for neutron star radii are in concordance with predictions from nuclear experiment and theory.     

Symmetry energy impact in simulations of core-collapse supernovae

In this work we study the effect of the symmetry energy on several properties of neutron stars. First, we discuss its effect on the density, proton fraction and pressure of the neutron star crust-core transition. We show that whereas the first two quantities present a clear correlation with the slope parameter L of the symmetry energy, no satisfactory correlation is seen between the transition pressure and L . However, a linear combination of the slope and curvature parameters at ρ = 0.1 fm^?3 is well correlated with the transition pressure. In the second part we analyze the effect of the symmetry energy on the pasta phase. It is shown that the size of the pasta clusters, number of nucleons and the cluster proton fraction depend on the density dependence of the symmetry energy: a small L gives rise to larger clusters. The influence of the equation of state at subsaturation densities on the extension of the inner crust of the neutron star is also discussed. Finally, the effect of the density dependence of the symmetry energy on the strangeness content of neutron stars is studied in the last part of the work. It is found that charged (neutral) hyperons appear at smaller (larger) densities for smaller values of the slope parameter L. A linear correlation between the radius and the strangeness content of a star with a fixed mass is also found.     

The single-particle characteristics of Pb isotopes near the drip lines calculated within the dispersive optical model

The neutron and proton dispersive optical potential for the ²⁰⁸Pb nucleus has been determined for the energy region from–70 to +60 MeV and used to calculate the differential elastic scattering, the total interaction and reaction cross sections, as well as the single-particle characteristics, the neutron and charge densities, rms radii, and the thickness of the nucleus skin. The calculated results are in good agreement with the experimental data. The proton dispersive optical model potential for the spherical and close to spherical Pb isotopes within the neutron and proton drip lines has been obtained by a similar method. The calculation predicts a trend towards the growth of the proton particle-hole gap, which corresponds to Z = 82 shell closure as Z approaches the proton drip line.     

Generalized hybrid derivative coupling model for finite nuclei

The generalized hybrid derivative coupling model has been applied to explore various ground state properties of different nuclei. In this work we have confined our calculation only to the model characterized by the hybridization parameter α = 1/4 which gives better results than the other models of the same class, as we have seen earlier, for nuclear matter calculations. The binding energy, single-particle energy spectra, density and charge radii of different doubly closed nuclei like ¹⁶O, ⁴⁰Ca, ⁴⁸Ca, ⁹⁰Zr, ¹³²Sn, ²⁰⁸Pb have been studied. The success of this model, in describing the doubly closed nuclei, motivates us to extend this calculation further in the case of open shell nuclei after incorporating the pairing interaction and using a BCS transformation. We have calculated the binding energy for such nuclei. We have also studied the isotopic shift for different Pb isotopes with respect to ²⁰⁸Pb. We have compared our results with the other standard theoretical results as well as with the experimental values. Received: 18 August 2000 / Accepted: 13 April 2001     

Neutron star structure and the neutron radius of 208Pb.

We study relationships between the neutron-rich skin of a heavy nucleus and the properties of neutron-star crusts. Relativistic effective field theories with a thicker neutron skin in 208Pb have a larger electron fraction and a lower liquid-to-solid transition density for neutron-rich matter. These properties are determined by the density dependence of the symmetry energy which we vary by adding nonlinear couplings between isoscalar and isovector mesons. An accurate measurement of the neutron radius in 208Pb-via parity violating electron scattering-may have important implications for the structure of the crust of neutron stars.     

Timescale for isospin equilibration in projectile breakup

We discuss neutron matter calculations based on chiral effective field theory interactions and their predictions for the symmetry energy, the neutron skin of ²⁰⁸Pb , and for the radius of neutron stars.     

Constraints on neutron skin thickness and symmetry energy of 208Pb through Skyrme forces and cluster model

We used the cluster structure properties of the 212Po to estimate the neutron skin thickness of 208Pb.For this purpose,we considered two important components:(a)alpha decay is a low energy phenomenon;therefore,one can expect that the mean-field,which can explain the ground state properties of 212Po,does not change during the alpha decay process.(b)212Po has a high alpha cluster-like structure,two protons and two neutrons outside its core nucleus with a double magic closed-shell,and the cluster model is a powerful formalism for the estimation of alpha decay preformation factor of such nuclei.The slope of the symmetry energy of 208Pb is estimated to be 75±25 MeV within the selected same mean-fields and Skyrme forces,which can simultaneously satisfy the ground-state properties of parent and daughter nuclei,as their neutron skin thicknesses are consistent with experimental data.     

在相对论平均场框架下研究同位旋依赖的高阶核子-ω-ρ介子耦合(英文)

在相对论平均场的框架下,对208Pb中子皮对新的同位旋依赖的高阶核子-ω-ρ介子耦合项的敏感性进行了研究。计算表明,高阶同位旋依赖的核子-ω-ρ介子耦合能够进一步软化对称能,因而能够在不影响其它基态可观测量的情况下,进一步减小208Pb的中子半径。The sensitivity of the neutron skin thickness S in ^208Pb to the new addition of the high order isospin-dependent nucleon-ω-ρ coupling term in the relativistic mean field model is studied. Calculations show that the high order isospin-dependent nucleon-ω-ρ coupling term can further soften the symmetry energy, and thus further decrease the neutron radius of ^208Pb without affecting other ground-state observables     

Probing the nuclear symmetry energy with heavy-ion reactions induced by neutron-rich nuclei

Heavy-ion reactions induced by neutron-rich nuclei provide a unique means to investigate the equation of state of isospin-asymmetric nuclear matter, especially the density dependence of the nuclear symmetry energy. In particular, recent analyses of the isospin diffusion data in heavy-ion reactions have already put a stringent constraint on the nuclear symmetry energy around the nuclear matter saturation density. We review this exciting result and discuss its implications on nuclear effective interactions and the neutron skin thickness of heavy nuclei. In addition, we also review the theoretical progress on probing the high density behaviors of the nuclear symmetry energy in heavy-ion reactions induced by high energy radioactive beams.      

Exploring nuclear symmetry energy with isospin dependence in neutron skin thickness of nuclei

We propose an alternative way to constrain the density dependence of the symmetry energy from 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. The relation of the neutron skin thickness to the nuclear charge and isospin asymmetry is systematically studied with the data from antiprotonic atom measurement, and with the extended Thomas-Fermi approach incorporating the Skyrme energy density functional. An obviously linear relationship between the slope parameter L of the nuclear symmetry energy and the isospin asymmetry dependent parameter of the neutron skin thickness can be found, by adopting 70 Skyrme interactions in the calculations. Combining the available experimental data, the constraint of -20 MeV L 82 MeV on the slope parameter of the symmetry energy is obtained. The Skyrme interactions satisfying the constraint are selected.