Constraints on the symmetry energy and neutron skins from experiments and theory

By M. Tsang, J. Stone, F. Camera, P. Danielewicz, Stefano Gandolfi, K. Hebeler, C. Horowitz, Jenny Lee, W. G. Lynch, Z. Kohley and 9 more. 2012

409 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The symmetry energy contribution to the nuclear equation of state impacts various phenomena in nuclear astrophysics, nuclear structure, and nuclear reactions. Its determination is a key objective of contemporary nuclear physics, with consequences for the understanding of dense matter within neutron stars. We examine the results of laboratory experiments that have provided initial constraints on the nuclear symmetry energy and on its density dependence at and somewhat below normal nuclear matter density. Even though some of these constraints have been derived from properties of nuclei while others have been derived from the nuclear response to electroweak and hadronic probes, within experimental uncertainties-they are consistent with each other. We also examine the most frequently used theoretical models that predict the symmetry energy and its slope parameter. By comparing existing constraints on the symmetry pressure to theories, we demonstrate how contributions of three-body forces, which are essential ingredients in neutron matter models, can be determined.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Nuclear and High Energy Physics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/9bc4369334b4c90c8b85acd8c08f20f6842c096d

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Citations in the corpus

Constraining the mass and radius of neutron stars in globular clusters (2017, background): “On the other hand, experiments which probe matter more dense than the saturation density are limited by the fact that they do so at the cost of introducing a large temperature (see, e.g., Tsang et al. 2012).”
Unified equation of state for neutron stars on a microscopic basis (2015, background): “…values for Esym(n0) and L lie within the recent constraints derived from the analysis of different astrophysical observations (Newton et al. 2013; Steiner et al. 2010; Lattimer & Lim 2013; Hebeler et al. 2013) and nuclear experiments (Chen et al. 2010; Tsang et al. 2012; Viñas et al. 2014).”
CORE-COLLAPSE SUPERNOVA EQUATIONS OF STATE BASED ON NEUTRON STAR OBSERVATIONS (2012, background): “Recent constraints on J suggest 28 < S < 34 from a combination of constraints from experiments, theory, and observations of neutron star masses and radii (Hebeler et al. 2010; Steiner & Gandolfi 2012; Lattimer & Lim 2012; Tsang et al. 2012; Steiner et al. 2012; Tews et al. 2012).”
The Nuclear Symmetry Energy (2016, methodology): “As in recent papers [2, 3] we collect a set of constraints on the values of S and L to see if they are compatible, and if an overlap region exists where the constraints are all fulfilled.”