Symmetry energy: nuclear masses and neutron stars
Abstract
We describe the main features of our most recent Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov nuclear mass models, based on 16-parameter generalized Skyrme forces. They have been fitted to the data of the 2012 Atomic Mass Evaluation, and favour a value of 30 MeV for the symmetry coefficient J, the corresponding root-mean square deviation being 0.549 MeV. We find that this conclusion is compatible with measurements of neutron-skin thickness. By constraining the underlying interactions to fit various equations of state of neutron matter calculated {\it ab initio} our models are well adapted to a realistic and unified treatment of all regions of neutron stars. We use our models to calculate the composition, the equation of state, the mass-radius relation and the maximum mass. Comparison with observations of neutron stars again favours a value of J = 30 MeV.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1309.2783,
title = {Symmetry energy: nuclear masses and neutron stars},
author = {J. M. Pearson and N. Chamel and A. F. Fantina and S. Goriely},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1309.2783},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
10 pages, 9 figures, to appear in EPJA special volume on symmetry energy