No Arabic abstract
Nuclear effective interactions are often modelled by simple analytical expressions such as the Skyrme zero-range force. This effective interaction depends on a limited number of parameters that are usually fitted using experimental data obtained from doubly magic nuclei. It was recently shown that many Skyrme functionals lead to the appearance of instabilities, in particular when symmetries are broken, for example unphysical polarization of odd-even or rotating nuclei. In this article, we show how the formalism of the linear response in infinite nuclear matter can be used to predict and avoid the regions of parameters that are responsible for these unphysical instabilities.
It is known that some well-established parametrizations of the EDF do not always provide converged results for nuclei and a qualitative link between this finding and the appearance of finite-size instabilities of SNM near saturation density when computed within the RPA has been pointed out. We seek for a quantitative and systematic connection between the impossibility to converge self-consistent calculations of nuclei and the occurrence of finite-size instabilities in SNM for the example of scalar-isovector (S=0, T=1) instabilities of the standard Skyrme EDF. We aim to establish a stability criterion based on computationally-friendly RPA calculations of SNM that is independent on the functional form of the EDF and that can be utilized during the adjustment of its coupling constants. Tuning the coupling constant $C^{rho Deltarho}_{1}$ of the gradient term that triggers scalar-isovector instabilities of the standard Skyrme EDF, we find that the occurrence of instabilities in finite nuclei depends strongly on the numerical scheme used to solve the self-consistent mean-field equations. The link to instabilities of SNM is made by extracting the lowest density $rho_{text{crit}}$ at which a pole appears at zero energy in the RPA response function when employing the critical value of the coupling constant $C^{rho Deltarho}_{1}$ extracted in nuclei. Our analysis suggests a two-fold stability criterion to avoid scalar-isovector instabilities: (i) The density $rho_{text{min}}$ corresponding to the lowest pole in the RPA response function should be larger than about 1.2 times the saturation density; (ii) one needs to verify that $rho_{p}(q_{text{pq}})$ exhibits a distinct global minimum and is not a decreasing function for large transferred momenta.
The existence of phase transitions from liquid to gas phases in asymmetric nuclear matter (ANM) is related with the instability regions which are limited by the spinodals. In this work we investigate the instabilities in ANM described within relativistic mean field hadron models, both with constant and density dependent couplings at zero and finite temperatures. In calculating the proton and neutron chemical potentials we have used an expansion in terms of Bessel functions that is convenient at low densities. The role of the isovector scalar $delta$-meson is also investigated in the framework of relativistic mean field models and density dependent hadronic models. It is shown that the main differences occur at finite temperature and large isospin asymmetry close to the boundary of the instability regions.
A fully-antisymmetrized random phase approximation calculation employing the continued fraction technique is performed to study nuclear matter response functions with the finite range Gogny force. The most commonly used parameter sets of this force, as well as some recent generalizations that include the tensor terms are considered and the corresponding response functions are shown. The calculations are performed at the first and second order in the continued fraction expansion and the explicit expressions for the second order tensor contributions are given. Comparison between first and second order continued fraction expansion results are provided. The differences between the responses obtained at the two orders turn to be more pronounced for the forces including tensor terms than for the standard Gogny ones. In the vector channels the responses calculated with Gogny forces including tensor terms are characterized by a large heterogeneity, reflecting the different choices for the tensor part of the interaction. For sake of comparison the response functions obtained considering a G-matrix based nuclear interaction are also shown. As first application of the present calculation, the possible existence of spurious finite-size instabilities of the Gogny forces with or without tensor terms has been investigated. The positive conclusion is that all the Gogny forces, but the GT2 one, are free of spurious finite-size instabilities. In perspective, the tool developed in the present paper can be inserted in the fitting procedure to construct new Gogny-type forces.
Recently, a new parameterization of the Gogny interaction suitable for astrophysical applications, named D1M*, has been presented. We investigate the possible existence of spurious finite-size instabilities of this new Gogny force by repeating a study that we have already performed for the most commonly used parameterizations (D1, D1S, D1N, D1M) of the Gogny force. This study is based on a fully-antisymmetrized random phase approximation (RPA) calculation of the nuclear matter response functions employing the continued fraction technique. It turns out that this new Gogny interaction is affected by spurious finite-size instabilities in the scalar isovector channel; hence, unphysical results are expected in the calculation of properties of nuclei, like neutron and proton densities, if this D1M* force is used. The conclusions from this study are then, for the first time, tested against mean-field calculations in a coordinate representation for several nuclei. Unphysical results for several nuclei are also obtained with the D1N parameterization of the Gogny force. These observations strongly advocate for the use of the linear response formalism to detect and avoid finite-size instabilities during the fit of the parameters of Gogny interactions as it is already done for some Skyrme forces.
The finite amplitude method is a feasible and efficient method for the linear response calculation based on the time-dependent density functional theory. It was originally proposed as a method to calculate the strength functions. Recently, new techniques have been developed for computation of normal modes (eigenmodes) of the quasiparticle-random-phase approximation. Recent advances associated with the finite amplitude method are reviewed.