No Arabic abstract
Correlations between the behavior of the nuclear symmetry energy, the neutron skins, and the percentage of energy-weighted sum rule (EWSR) exhausted by the Pygmy Dipole Resonance (PDR) in 68Ni and 132Sn have been investigated by using different Random Phase Approximation (RPA) models for the dipole response, based on a representative set of Skyrme effective forces plus meson-exchange effective Lagrangians. A comparison with the experimental data has allowed us to constrain the value of the derivative of the symmetry energy at saturation. The neutron skin radius is deduced under this constraint.
I present a brief summary of the first three decades of studies of pygmy resonances in nuclei and their relation to the symmetry energy of nuclear matter. I discuss the first experiments and theories dedicated to study the electromagnetic response in halo nuclei and how a low energy peak was initially identified as a candidate for the pygmy resonance. This is followed by the description of a collective state in medium heavy and heavy nuclei which was definitely identified as a pygmy resonance. The role of the slope parameter of the symmetry energy in determining the properties of neutron stars is stressed. The theoretical and experimental information collected on pygmy resonances, neutron skins, and the numerous correlations found with the slope parameter is briefly reviewed.
We present an inference of the nuclear symmetry energy magnitude $J$, the slope $L$ and the curvature $K_{rm sym}$ by combining neutron skin data on Ca, Pb and Sn isotopes and our best theoretical information about pure neutron matter (PNM). A Bayesian framework is used to consistently incorporate prior knowledge of the PNM equation of state from chiral effective field theory calculations. Neutron skins are modeled in a Hartree-Fock approach using an extended Skyrme energy-density functional which allows for independent variation of $J$, $L$ and $K_{rm sym}$ without affecting the symmetric nuclear matter equation of state. We discuss the choice of neutron skin data sets, and combining errors in quadrature we obtain 95% credible values of $J=31.3substack{+4.2 -5.9}$ MeV, $L=40substack{+34 -26}$ MeV and $K_{tau} = L - 6K_{rm sym}= -444substack{+100 -84}$ MeV using uninformative priors in $J$, $L$ and $K_{rm sym}$, and $J=31.9substack{+1.3 -1.3}$ MeV, $L=37substack{+9 -8}$ MeV and $K_{tau} = -480substack{+25 -26}$ MeV using PNM priors. The correlations between symmetry energy parameters induced by neutron skin data is discussed and compared with the droplet model. Neutron skin data alone is shown to place limits on the symmetry energy parameters as stringent as those obtained from chiral effective field theory alone, and when combined the 95% credible intervals are reduced by a factor of 4-5. Ahead of new measurements of lead and calcium neutron skins from parity-violating electron scattering experiments at Jefferson Lab and Mainz Superconducting Accelerator, we make predictions based on existing data on neutron skins of tin for the neutron skins of calcium and lead of 0.166$pm$0.008 fm and $0.169 pm 0.014$ fm respectively, using uninformative priors, and 0.167$pm$0.008 fm and $0.172 pm 0.015$ fm respectively, using PNM priors.
The neutron skin of nuclei is an important fundamental property, but its accurate measurement faces many challenges. Inspired by charge symmetry of nuclear forces, the neutron skin of a neutron-rich nucleus is related to the difference between the charge radii of the corresponding mirror nuclei. We investigate this relation within the framework of the Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov method with Skyrme interactions. Predictions for proton skins are also made for several mirror pairs in the middle mass range. For the first time the correlation between the thickness of the neutron skin and the characteristics related with the density dependence of the nuclear symmetry energy is investigated simultaneously for nuclei and their corresponding mirror partners. As an example, the Ni isotopic chain with mass number $A=48-60$ is considered. These quantities are calculated within the coherent density fluctuation model using Brueckner and Skyrme energy-density functionals for isospin asymmetric nuclear matter with two Skyrme-type effective interactions, SkM* and SLy4. Results are also presented for the symmetry energy as a function of $A$ for a family of mirror pairs from selected chains of nuclei with $Z=20$, $N=14$, and $N=50$. The evolution curves show a similar behavior crossing at the $N=Z$ nucleus in each chain and a smooth growing deviation when $N eq Z$ starts. Comparison of our results for the radii and skins with those from the calculations based on high-precision chiral forces is made.
The symmetry energy obtained with the effective Skyrme energy density functional is related to the values of isoscalar effective mass and isovector effective mass, which is also indirectly related to the incompressibility of symmetric nuclear matter. In this work, we analyze the values of symmetry energy and its related nuclear matter parameters in five-dimensional parameter space by describing the heavy ion collision data, such as isospin diffusion data at 35 MeV/u and 50 MeV/u, neutron skin of $^{208}$Pb, and tidal deformability and maximum mass of neutron star. We obtain the parameter sets which can describe the isospin diffusion, neutron skin, tidal deformability and maximum mass of neutron star, and give the incompressibility $K_0$=250.23$pm$20.16 MeV, symmetry energy coefficient $S_0$=31.35$pm$2.08 MeV, the slope of symmetry energy $L$=59.57$pm$10.06 MeV, isoscalar effective mass $m_s^*/m$=0.75$pm$0.05 and quantity related to effective mass splitting $f_I$=0.005$pm$0.170. At two times normal density, the symmetry energy we obtained is in 35-55 MeV. To reduce the large uncertainties of $f_I$, more critical works in heavy ion collisions at different beam energies are needed.
A number of observed phenomena associated with individual neutron star systems or neutron star populations find explanations in models in which the neutron star crust plays an important role. We review recent work examining the sensitivity to the slope of the symmetry energy $L$ of such models, and constraints extracted on $L$ from confronting them with observations. We focus on six sets of observations and proposed explanations: (i) The cooling rate of the neutron star in Cassiopeia A, confronting cooling models which include enhanced cooling in the nuclear pasta regions of the inner crust, (ii) the upper limit of the observed periods of young X-ray pulsars, confronting models of magnetic field decay in the crust caused by the high resistivity of the nuclear pasta layer, (iii) glitches from the Vela pulsar, confronting the paradigm that they arise due to a sudden re-coupling of the crustal neutron superfluid to the crustal lattice after a period during which they were decoupled due to vortex pinning, (iv) The frequencies of quasi-periodic oscillations in the X-ray tail of light curves from giant flares from soft gamma-ray repeaters, confronting models of torsional crust oscillations, (v) the upper limit on the frequency to which millisecond pulsars can be spun-up due to accretion from a binary companion, confronting models of the r-mode instability arising above a threshold frequency determined in part by the viscous dissipation timescale at the crust-core boundary, and (vi) the observations of precursor electromagnetic flares a few seconds before short gamma-ray bursts, confronting a model of crust shattering caused by resonant excitation of a crustal oscillation mode by the tidal gravitational field of a companion neutron star just before merger.