2016/12/31 by Shun Furusawa, I. N. Mishustin, Igor Mishustin
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics #Asymmetry #Atomic physics #Compressibility #Fission #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #Isospin #Mass formula #Mass number #Neutron #Nuclear binding energy #Nuclear fusion #Nuclear matter #Nuclear physics #Nuclear physics research studies #Nucleon #Nucleus #Physics #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #Quantum mechanics #Semi-empirical mass formula #Supernova #Thermodynamics #astro-ph.HE #nucl-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevc.95.035802
published as Phys. Rev. C 95, 035802 (2017) · 26 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. C
openalex publication_date 2017/03/08 · arxiv created 2017/03/18 · arxiv updated 2017/03/21 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We investigate the mass fractions and in-medium properties of heavy nuclei in stellar matter at characteristic densities and temperatures for supernova (SN) explosions. The individual nuclei are described within the compressible liquid-drop model taking into account modifications of bulk, surface, and Coulomb energies. The equilibrium properties of nuclei and the full ensemble of heavy nuclei are calculated self-consistently. It is found that heavy nuclei in the ensemble are either compressed or decompressed depending on the isospin asymmetry of the system. The compression or decompression has a little influence on the binding energies, total mass fractions, and average mass numbers of heavy nuclei, although the equilibrium densities of individual nuclei themselves are changed appreciably above one-hundredth of normal nuclear density. We find that nuclear structure in the single-nucleus approximation deviates from the actual one obtained in the multinucleus description, since the density of free nucleons is different between these two descriptions. This study indicates that a multinucleus description is required to realistically account for in-medium effects on the nuclear structure in supernova matter.