No Arabic abstract
We present the simplest nuclear energy density functional (NEDF) to date, determined by only 4 significant phenomenological parameters, yet capable of fitting measured nuclear masses with better accuracy than the Bethe-Weizsacker mass formula, while also describing density structures (charge radii, neutron skins etc.) and time-dependent phenomena (induced fission, giant resonances, low energy nuclear collisions, etc.). The 4 significant parameters are necessary to describe bulk nuclear properties (binding energies and charge radii); an additional 2 to 3 parameters have little influence on the bulk nuclear properties, but allow independent control of the density dependence of the symmetry energy and isovector excitations, in particular the Thomas-Reiche-Kuhn sum rule. This Hohenberg-Kohn-style of density functional theory successfully realizes Weizsackers ideas and provides a computationally tractable model for a variety of static nuclear properties and dynamics, from finite nuclei to neutron stars, where it will also provide a new insight into the physics of the r-process, nucleosynthesis, and neutron star crust structure. This new NEDF clearly separates the bulk geometric properties - volume, surface, symmetry, and Coulomb energies which amount to 8MeV per nucleon or up to 2000MeV per nucleus for heavy nuclei - from finer details related to shell effects, pairing, isospin breaking, etc. which contribute at most a few MeV for the entire nucleus. Thus it provides a systematic framework for organizing various contributions to the NEDF. Measured and calculated physical observables - symmetry and saturation properties, the neutron matter equation of state, and the frequency of giant dipole resonances - lead directly to new terms not considered in current NEDF parameterizations.
Mass loss rate formulae are derived from observations or from suites of models. For theoretical models, the following have all been identified as factors greatly influencing the atmospheric structure and mass loss rates: Pulsation with piston amplitude scaling appropriately with stellar L; dust nucleation and growth, with radiation pressure and grain-gas interactions and appropriate dependence on temperature and density; non-grey opacity with at least 51 frequency samples; non-LTE and departures from radiative equilibrium in the compressed and expanding flows; and non-equilibrium processes affecting the composition (grain formation; molecular chemistry). No one set of models yet includes all the factors known to be important. In fact, it is very difficult to construct a model that can simultaneously include these factors and be useful for computing spectra. Therefore, although theoretical model grids are needed to separate the effects of M,L,R and/or $T_{mathrm{eff}}$ or Z on the mass loss rates, these models must be carefully checked against observations. Getting the right order of magnitude for the mass loss rate is only the first step in such a comparison, and is not sufficient to determine whether the mass loss formula is correct. However, there are observables that do test the validity of mass loss formulae as they depend directly on $dlog dot M/dlog L$, $dlog dot M/dlog R$, or $dlog dot M/dlog P$.
In the present paper, we investigate the cosmographic problem using the bias-variance trade-off. We find that both the z-redshift and the $y=z/(1+z)$-redshift can present a small bias estimation. It means that the cosmography can describe the supernova data more accurately. Minimizing risk, it suggests that cosmography up to the second order is the best approximation. Forecasting the constraint from future measurements, we find that future supernova and redshift drift can significantly improve the constraint, thus having the potential to solve the cosmographic problem. We also exploit the values of cosmography on the deceleration parameter and equation of state of dark energy $w(z)$. We find that supernova cosmography cannot give stable estimations on them. However, much useful information was obtained, such as that the cosmography favors a complicated dark energy with varying $w(z)$, and the derivative $dw/dz<0$ for low redshift. The cosmography is helpful to model the dark energy.
Temperature, the central concept of thermal physics, is one of the most frequently employed physical quantities in common practice. Even though the operative methods of the temperature measurement are described in detail in various practical instructions and textbooks, the rigorous treatment of this concept is almost lacking in the current literature. As a result, the answer to a simple question of what the temperature is is by no means trivial and unambiguous. There is especially an appreciable gap between the temperature as introduced in the frame of statistical theory and the only experimentally observable quantity related to this concept, phenomenological temperature. Just the logical and epistemological analysis of the present concept of phenomenological temperature is the kernel of the contribution.
Relativistic energy density functionals have become a standard framework for nuclear structure studies of ground-state properties and collective excitations over the entire nuclide chart. We review recent developments in modeling nuclear weak-interaction processes: charge-exchange excitations and the role of isoscalar proton-neutron pairing, charged-current neutrino-nucleus reactions relevant for supernova evolution and neutrino detectors, and calculation of beta-decay rates for r-process nucleosynthesis.
We give an overview about equations of state (EOS) which are currently available for simulations of core-collapse supernovae and neutron star mergers. A few selected important aspects of the EOS, such as the symmetry energy, the maximum mass of neutron stars, and cluster formation, are confronted with constraints from experiments and astrophysical observations. There are just very few models which are compatible even with this very restricted set of constraints. These remaining models illustrate the uncertainty of the uniform nuclear matter EOS at high densities. In addition, at finite temperatures the medium modifications of nuclear clusters represent a conceptual challenge. In conclusion, there has been significant development in the recent years, but there is still need for further improved general purpose EOS tables.