Relativistic effective interaction for nuclei, giant resonances, and neutron stars

Journal Article · Mon Nov 15 00:00:00 EST 2010 · Physical Review. C, Nuclear Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVC.82.055803· OSTI ID:21499219

Fattoyev, F J; Piekarewicz, J ^[1]; Horowitz, C J; Shen, G ^[2]

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1. Department of Physics, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida 32306 (United States)
2. Nuclear Theory Center and Department of Physics, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana 47405 (United States)

Nuclear effective interactions are useful tools in astrophysical applications especially if one can guide the extrapolations to the extremes regions of isospin and density that are required to simulate dense, neutron-rich systems. Isospin extrapolations may be constrained in the laboratory by measuring the neutron skin thickness of a heavy nucleus, such as {sup 208}Pb. Similarly, future observations of massive neutron stars will constrain the extrapolations to the high-density domain. In this contribution we introduce a new relativistic effective interaction that is simultaneously constrained by the properties of finite nuclei, their collective excitations, and neutron-star properties. By adjusting two of the empirical parameters of the theory, one can efficiently tune the neutron skin thickness of {sup 208}Pb and the maximum neutron-star mass. We illustrate this procedure in response to the recent interpretation of x-ray observations by Steiner, Lattimer, and Brown that suggests that the FSUGold effective interaction predicts neutron-star radii that are too large and a maximum stellar mass that is too small. The new effective interaction is fitted to a neutron skin thickness in {sup 208}Pb of only R{sub n}-R{sub p}=0.16 fm and yields a moderately large maximum neutron-star mass of 1.94 M{sub {center_dot}}.

• OSTI ID: 21499219
• Journal Information: Physical Review. C, Nuclear Physics, Vol. 82, Issue 5; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevC.82.055803; (c) 2010 The American Physical Society; ISSN 0556-2813
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS
79 ASTROPHYSICS
COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
ASTROPHYSICS
COLLECTIVE EXCITATIONS
DENSITY
EXTRAPOLATION
GIANT RESONANCE
INTERACTIONS
ISOSPIN
LEAD 208
MASS
NEUTRON STARS
NEUTRONS
RELATIVISTIC RANGE
THICKNESS
X RADIATION
BARYONS
DIMENSIONS
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
ENERGY RANGE
ENERGY-LEVEL TRANSITIONS
EVEN-EVEN NUCLEI
EXCITATION
FERMIONS
HADRONS
HEAVY NUCLEI
IONIZING RADIATIONS
ISOTOPES
LEAD ISOTOPES
MATHEMATICAL SOLUTIONS
NUCLEI
NUCLEONS
NUMERICAL SOLUTION
PARTICLE PROPERTIES
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
PHYSICS
RADIATIONS
RESONANCE
STABLE ISOTOPES
STARS