Jirina Stone

Abstract:

The low-energy levels of ¹²⁰Pd74 were populated by β decay of ¹²⁰Rh75, which was produced via projectile fragmentation of a ¹³⁶Xe82 beam at 120 MeV/nucleon. Delayed β-gated γ rays with energies of 438 and 618 keV were observed in coincidence with ¹²⁰Rh75 fragments and assigned to the 21⁺ → 0⁺ and 41⁺ → 21⁺ transitions, respectively, in ¹²⁰Pd74. Isomeric γ-ray transitions are also reported for ¹²⁰Rh75 and ¹²⁶Cd78. The low-energy structure of ¹²⁰Pd74 shows remarkable similarity to those of the isotopic ¹⁰⁸Pd62 and isotonic ¹²⁸Xe74 suggesting that these nuclides share the same Z=50 and N=82 closed shell structures with neutron-rich ¹²⁰Pd 74.

Abstract:

The effective Skyrme interaction has been used extensively in mean-field models for several decades and many different parametrizations of the interaction have been proposed. All of these give similar agreement with the experimental observables of nuclear ground states as well as with the properties of infinite symmetric nuclear matter at the saturation density n0. However, when applied over a wider range of densities (up to ∼3n0) they predict widely varying behavior for the observables of both symmetric and asymmetric nuclear matter. A particularly relevant example of naturally occurring asymmetric nuclear matter is the material of which neutron stars are composed. At around nuclear matter density, this can be well represented as a mixture of neutrons, protons, electrons, and muons (n+p+e+μ matter) in β-equilibrium, and these densities turn out to be the key ones for determining the properties of neutron-star models with masses near to the widely used “canonical” value of 1.4M⊙. By constructing equations of state for neutron-star matter using the different Skyrme parametrizations, calculating corresponding neutron-star models and then comparing these with observational data, an additional constraint can be obtained for the values of the Skyrme parameters. Such a constraint is particularly relevant because the parametrizations are initially determined by fitting to the properties of doubly closed-shell nuclei and it is an open question how suitable they then are for nuclei with high values of isospin, such as those at the neutron drip-line and beyond. The neutron-star environment provides an invaluable testing ground for this. We have carried out an investigation of 87 different Skyrme parametrizations in order to examine how successful they are in predicting the expected properties of infinite nuclear matter and generating plausible neutron-star models. This is the first systematic study of the predictions of the various Skyrme parametrizations for the density dependence of the characteristic observables of nuclear matter; the density dependence of the symmetry energy for β-equilibrium matter turns out to be a crucial property for indicating which Skyrme parameter sets will apply equally well for finite nuclei and for neutron-star matter. Only 27 of the 87 parametrizations investigated pass the test of giving satisfactory neutron-star models and we present a list of these.

Abstract:

The effective Skyrme interaction has been used extensively in mean-field models for several decades and many different parametrizations of the interaction have been proposed. All of these give similar agreement with the experimental observables of nuclear ground states as well as with the properties of infinite symmetric nuclear matter at the saturation density n 0. However, when applied over a wider range of densities (up to ∼3n0) they predict widely varying behavior for the observables of both symmetric and asymmetric nuclear matter. A particularly relevant example of naturally occurring asymmetric nuclear matter is the material of which neutron stars are composed. At around nuclear matter density, this can be well represented as a mixture of neutrons, protons, electrons, and muons (n + p + e + μ matter) in β-equilibrium, and these densities turn out to be the key ones for determining the properties of neutron-star models with masses near to the widely used "canonical" value of 1.4M⊙. By constructing equations of state for neutron-star matter using the different Skyrme parametrizations, calculating corresponding neutron-star models and then comparing these with observational data, an additional constraint can be obtained for the values of the Skyrme parameters. Such a constraint is particularly relevant because the parametrizations are initially determined by fitting to the properties of doubly closed-shell nuclei and it is an open question how suitable they then are for nuclei with high values of isospin, such as those at the neutron drip-line and beyond. The neutron-star environment provides an invaluable testing ground for this. We have carried out an investigation of 87 different Skyrme parametrizations in order to examine how successful they are in predicting the expected properties of infinite nuclear matter and generating plausible neutron-star models. This is the first systematic study of the predictions of the various Skyrme parametrizations for the density dependence of the characteristic observables of nuclear matter; the density dependence of the symmetry energy for β-equilibrium matter turns out to be a crucial property for indicating which Skyrme parameter sets will apply equally well for finite nuclei and for neutron-star matter. Only 27 of the 87 parametrizations investigated pass the test of giving satisfactory neutron-star models and we present a list of these.