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.
We analyze the spinodal instabilities of spin polarized asymmetric nuclear matter at zero temperature for several configurations of the neutron and proton spins. The calculations are performed with the Brueckner--Hartree--Fock (BHF) approach using the Argonne V18 nucleon-nucleon potential plus a three-nucleon force of Urbana type. An analytical parametrization of the energy density, which reproduces with good accuracy the BHF results, is employed to determine the spinodal instability region. We find that, independently of the of the orientation of the neutron and proton spins, the spinodal instability region shinks when the system is polarized, being its size smaller smaller when neutron and proton spins are antiparallel than when they are oriented in a parallel way. We find also that the spinodal instability is always dominated by total density fluctuation independently of the degree of polarization of the system, and that restoration of the isospin symmetry in the liquid phase, {it i.e.,} the so-called isospin distillation or fragmentation effect, becomes less efficient with the polarization of the system.
We explore the appearance of light clusters at high densities of collapsing stellar cores. Special attention is paid to the unstable isotope H4, which was not included in previous studies. The importance of light clusters in the calculation of rates for neutrino matter interaction is discussed. The main conclusion is that thermodynamic quantities are only weakly sensitive to the chemical composition. The change in pressure and hence the direct change in collapse dynamics will be minor. But the change in neutrino heating and neutronization processes can be significant.
Nucleon momentum distributions at various densities and isospin-asymmetries for nuclear matter are investigated systematically within the extended Bruecker-Hartree-Fock approach.The shapes of the normalized momentum distributions varying with $k/k_{F}$ are practically identical, while the density and isospin dependent magnitude of the distribution is directly related to the depletion of the Fermi sea. Based on these properties, a parameterized formula is proposed with the parameters calibrated to the calculated result.
We discuss a self-consistent method to calculate the properties of cold asymmetric nuclear matter which is dressed with isoscalar scalar pion condensates. The nucleon-nucleon interaction is mediated by these pion pairs, omega- and rho- mesons. The parameters of these interactions are evaluated self-consistently using the saturation properties of nuclear matter like binding energy, pressure, compressibility and symmetry energy. The computed equation of state of pure neutron matter (PNM) is used to calculate mass and radius of a pure neutron star.
We propose an axisymmetric angle-dependent gap (ADG) state with the broken rotational symmetry in isospin-asymmetric nuclear matter. In this state, the deformed Fermi spheres of neutrons and protons increase the pairing probabilities along the axis of symmetry breaking near the average Fermi surface. We find that the state possesses lower free energy and larger gap value than the angle-averaged gap state at large isospin asymmetries. These properties are mainly caused by the coupling of different m_{j} components of the pairing gap. Furthermore, we find the transition from the ADG state to the normal state is of second order and the ADG state vanishes at the critical isospin asymmetry m_{j} where the angle-averaged gap vanishes.