Incompressibility in finite nuclei and nuclear matter

The incompressibility (compression modulus) $K_{rm 0}$ of infinite symmetric nuclear matter at saturation density has become one of the major constraints on mean-field models of nuclear many-body systems as well as of models of high density matter in astrophysical objects and heavy-ion collisions. We present a comprehensive re-analysis of recent data on GMR energies in even-even $^{rm 112-124}$Sn and $^{rm 106,100-116}$Cd and earlier data on 58 $le$ A $le$ 208 nuclei. The incompressibility of finite nuclei $K_{rm A}$ is expressed as a leptodermous expansion with volume, surface, isospin and Coulomb coefficients $K_{rm vol}$, $K_{rm surf}$, $K_tau$ and $K_{rm coul}$. textit{Assuming} that the volume coefficient $K_{rm vol}$ is identified with $K_{rm 0}$, the $K_{rm coul}$ = -(5.2 $pm$ 0.7) MeV and the contribution from the curvature term K$_{rm curv}$A$^{rm -2/3}$ in the expansion is neglected, compelling evidence is found for $K_{rm 0}$ to be in the range 250 $ < K_{rm 0} < $ 315 MeV, the ratio of the surface and volume coefficients $c = K_{rm surf}/K_{rm vol}$ to be between -2.4 and -1.6 and $K_{rm tau}$ between -840 and -350 MeV. We show that the generally accepted value of $K_{rm 0}$ = (240 $pm$ 20) MeV can be obtained from the fits provided $c sim$ -1, as predicted by the majority of mean-field models. However, the fits are significantly improved if $c$ is allowed to vary, leading to a range of $K_{rm 0}$, extended to higher values. A self-consistent simple (toy) model has been developed, which shows that the density dependence of the surface diffuseness of a vibrating nucleus plays a major role in determination of the ratio K$_{rm surf}/K_{rm vol}$ and yields predictions consistent with our findings.