Direct Reactions with Exotic Nuclei, Nuclear Structure and Astrophysics

Intermediate energy Coulomb excitation and dissociation is a useful tool for nuclear structure and astrophysics studies. Low-lying strength in nuclei far from stability was discovered by this method. The effective range theory for low-lying strength in one-neutron halo nuclei is summarized and extended to two-neutron halo nuclei. This is of special interest in view of recent rather accurate experimental results on the low-lying electric dipole strength in $^{11}$Li. Another indirect approach to nuclear astrophysics is the Trojan horse method. It is pointed out that it is a suitable tool to investigate subthreshold resonances.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, Proceedings of the Erice School on 'Radioactive Beams, Nuclear Dynamics and Astrophysics' to be published in 'Prog. Part. Nucl. Phys.

Neutron star equations of state with optical potential constraint

Nuclear matter and neutron stars are studied in the framework of an extended relativistic mean-field (RMF) model with higher-order derivative and density dependent couplings of nucleons to the meson fields. The derivative couplings lead to an energy dependence of the scalar and vector self-energies of the nucleons. It can be adjusted to be consistent with experimental results for the optical potential in nuclear matter. Several parametrisations, which give identical predictions for the saturation properties of nuclear matter, are presented for different forms of the derivative coupling functions. The stellar structure of spherical, non-rotating stars is calculated for these new equations of state (EoS). A substantial softening of the EoS and a reduction of the maximum mass of neutron stars is found if the optical potential constraint is satisfied.Comment: 19 pages, 4 figure

Direct Reactions with Exotic Nuclei

We discuss recent work on Coulomb dissociation and an effective-range theory of low-lying electromagnetic strength of halo nuclei. We propose to study Coulomb dissociation of a halo nucleus bound by a zero-range potential as a homework problem. We study the transition from stripping to bound and unbound states and point out in this context that the Trojan-Horse method is a suitable tool to investigate subthreshold resonances.Comment: 9 pages, 1 figure, proceedings of Workshop on "Reaction Mechanisms for Rare Isotope Beams" Michigan State University March 9-12,200

Investigation of subthreshold resonances with the Trojan horse method

It is pointed out that the Trojan horse method is a suitable tool to investigate subthreshold resonances.Comment: references added, typo corrected;6 pages, 1 figure, to be published in the AIP Proceedings of Fusion06, International Conference on Reaction Mechanisms and Nuclear Structure at the Coulomb Barrier, March 19-23, 2006, San Servolo, Ital

A non-perturbative approach to halo breakup

The theory of weakly bound cluster breakup, like halo nucleus breakup, needs an accurate treatment of the transitions from bound to continuum states induced by the nuclear and Coulomb potentials. When the transition probability is not very small, a non-perturbative framework might be necessary. Nuclear excitation dominates at small impact parameters whereas the Coulomb potential being long range acts over a larger impact parameter interval. In this article, we propose an effective breakup amplitude which meets a number of requirements necessary for an accurate quantitative description of the breakup reaction mechanism. Furthermore our treatment gives some insight on the interplay between time dependent perturbation theory and sudden approximation and it allows to include the nuclear and Coulomb potentials to all orders within an eikonal-like framework.Comment: 22 Latex pages, 1 table, 8 eps figures. Accepted for publication on Nucl. Phys.

E0 emission in alpha + ^12C fusion at astrophysical energies

We show that E0 emission in alpha + ^12C fusion at astrophysically interesting energies is negligible compared to E1 and E2 emission.Comment: submitted to Phys. Rev. C, Brief Report

Strangeness in the cores of neutron stars

The measurement of the mass 1.97 +/- 0.04 M_sun for PSR J1614-2230 provides a new constraint on the equation of state and composition of matter at high densities. In this contribution we investigate the possibility that the dense cores of neutron stars could contain strange quarks either in a confined state (hyperonic matter) or in a deconfined one (strange quark matter) while fulfilling a set of constraints including the new maximum mass constraint. We account for the possible appearance of hyperons within an extended version of the density-dependent relativistic mean-field model, including the phi-meson interaction channel. Deconfined quark matter is described by the color superconducting three-flavor NJL model.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, contribution to "Strangeness in Quark Matter 2011", Cracow, September 18-24, 201

Effects of the liquid-gas phase transition and cluster formation on the symmetry energy

Various definitions of the symmetry energy are introduced for nuclei, dilute nuclear matter below saturation density and stellar matter, which is found in compact stars or core-collapse supernovae. The resulting differences are exemplified by calculations in a theoretical approach based on a generalized relativistic density functional for dense matter. It contains nucleonic clusters as explicit degrees of freedom with medium dependent properties that are derived for light clusters from a quantum statistical approach. With such a model the dissolution of clusters at high densities can be described. The effects of the liquid-gas phase transition in nuclear matter and of cluster formation in stellar matter on the density dependence of the symmetry energy are studied for different temperatures. It is observed that correlations and the formation of inhomogeneous matter at low densities and temperatures causes an increase of the symmetry energy as compared to calculations assuming a uniform uncorrelated spatial distribution of constituent baryons and leptons.Comment: 20 pages, 19 figures, version accepted for publication in EPJA special volume on Nuclear Symmetry Energ