250 research outputs found
Symmetry energy, unstable nuclei, and neutron star crusts
Phenomenological approach to inhomogeneous nuclear matter is useful to
describe fundamental properties of atomic nuclei and neutron star crusts in
terms of the equation of state of uniform nuclear matter. We review a series of
researches that we have developed by following this approach. We start with
more than 200 equations of state that are consistent with empirical masses and
charge radii of stable nuclei and then apply them to describe matter radii and
masses of unstable nuclei, proton elastic scattering and total reaction cross
sections off unstable nuclei, and nuclei in neutron star crusts including
nuclear pasta. We finally discuss the possibility of constraining the density
dependence of the symmetry energy from experiments on unstable nuclei and even
observations of quasi-periodic oscillations in giant flares of soft gamma-ray
repeaters.Comment: 17 pages, 16 figures, to appear in EPJA special volume on symmetry
energy. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1303.450
The symmetry energy at subnuclear densities and nuclei in neutron star crusts
We examine how the properties of inhomogeneous nuclear matter at subnuclear
densities depend on the density dependence of the symmetry energy. Using a
macroscopic nuclear model we calculate the size and shape of nuclei in neutron
star matter at zero temperature in a way dependent on the density dependence of
the symmetry energy. We find that for smaller symmetry energy at subnuclear
densities, corresponding to larger density symmetry coefficient L, the charge
number of nuclei is smaller, and the critical density at which matter with
nuclei or bubbles becomes uniform is lower. The decrease in the charge number
is associated with the dependence of the surface tension on the nuclear density
and the density of a sea of neutrons, while the decrease in the critical
density can be generally understood in terms of proton clustering instability
in uniform matter.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figures; Fig. 6 corrected, typos correcte
Synthesis of thin-long heavy nuclei in ternary collisions
We illustrate the formation of a thin-long structure of heavy nuclei by
three-nucleus simultaneous collisions within time-dependent density functional
theory. The impact parameter dependence for such formation is systematically
demonstrated through clarifications of the difference between binary and
ternary collision events. A new method for producing thin-long heavy nuclei in
the laboratory is suggested, as well as the possible formation of the thin-long
structure in hot dense matter such as that encountered in core collapse
supernovae.Comment: submitte
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