Origins and impacts of high-density symmetry energy

2016/10/03 by Bao-An Li
Physics and Astronomy · #Classical mechanics #Energy (signal processing) #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #Geometry #Kinetic energy #Neutron star #Nuclear physics research studies #Observable #Physics #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #Quantum mechanics #Symmetry (geometry) #Tensor (intrinsic definition) #Theoretical physics #Work (physics) #astro-ph.SR #nucl-ex #nucl-th

paper · pdf · doi:10.1063/1.4984856

Invited lecture given at the Carpathian Summer School of Physics 2016, Exotic Nuclei and Nuclear Astrophysics (VI), Sinaia, Romania, June 26 to July 9, 2016

arxiv created 2016/10/03 · openalex publication_date 2017/01/01 · arxiv updated 2017/08/02 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

What is nuclear symmetry energy? Why is it important? What do we know about it? Why is it so uncertain especially at high densities? Can the total symmetry energy or its kinetic part be negative? What are the effects of three-body and/or tensor force on symmetry energy? How can we probe the density dependence of nuclear symmetry energy with terrestrial nuclear experiments? What observables of heavy-ion reactions are sensitive to the high-density behavior of nuclear symmetry energy? How does the symmetry energy affect properties of neutron stars, gravitational waves and our understanding about the nature of strong-field gravity? In this lecture, we try to answer these questions as best as we can based on some of our recent work and/or understanding of research done by others. This note summarizes the main points of the lecture.

Citations

• The equation of state of neutron matter, symmetry energy and neutron star structure
• Constraining the gravitational binding energy of PSR J0737-3039B using terrestrial nuclear data
• Constraints on the symmetry energy using the mass-radius relation of neutron stars
• Momentum sharing in imbalanced Fermi systems
• Independent particle motion and correlations in fermion systems
• Isospin splitting of the nucleon mean field
• Neutron–proton elliptic flow difference as a probe for the high density dependence of the symmetry energy
• Symmetry energy from elliptic flow in 197Au +197Au
• Modern theory of nuclear forces
• Isospin asymmetry in nuclei and neutron stars
• Chiral effective field theory and nuclear forces
• Circumstantial Evidence for a Soft Nuclear Symmetry Energy at Suprasaturation Densities
• Analysis of Neutron Stars Observations Using a Correlated Fermi Gas Model
• Protophobic Fifth Force Interpretation of the Observed Anomaly in ⁸Be Nuclear Transitions