Neutron star cooling - a challenge to the nuclear mean field

Abstract

The two recent density-dependent versions of the finite-range M3Y interaction (CDM3Y$n$ and M3Y-P$n$) have been probed against the bulk properties of asymmetric nuclear matter (NM) in the nonrelativistic Hartree Fock (HF) formalism. The same HF study has also been done with the famous Skyrme (SLy4) and Gogny (D1S and D1N) interactions which were well tested in the nuclear structure calculations. Our HF results are compared with those given by other many-body calculations like the Dirac-Brueckner Hartree-Fock approach or ab-initio variational calculation using free nucleon-nucleon interaction, and by both the nonrelativistic and relativistic mean-field studies using different model parameters. Although the two considered density-dependent versions of the M3Y interaction were proven to be quite realistic in the nuclear structure or reaction studies, they give two distinct behaviors of the NM symmetry energy at high densities, like the Asy-soft and Asy-stiff scenarios found earlier with other mean-field interactions. As a consequence, we obtain two different behaviors of the proton fraction in the $\beta$-equilibrium which in turn can imply two drastically different mechanisms for the neutron star cooling. While some preference of the Asy-stiff scenario was found based on predictions of the latest microscopic many-body calculations or empirical NM pressure and isospin diffusion data deduced from heavy-ion collisions, a consistent mean-field description of nuclear structure database is more often given by some Asy-soft type interaction like the Gogny or M3Y-P$n$ ones. Such a dilemma poses an interesting challenge to the modern mean-field approaches.

Version accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. C

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• Deformation of Ne isotopes in the island-of-inversion region
• Isovector properties of the Gogny interaction
• Equation of state of the neutron star matter, and the nuclear symmetry energy
• Cooling of Small and Massive Hyperonic Stars
• Semi-realistic nucleon-nucleon interactions with improved neutron-matter properties
• Folding model study of the charge-exchange scattering to the isobaric analog state and implication for the nuclear symmetry energy
• Mean-field study of hot beta-stable protoneutron star matter: Impact of the symmetry energy and nucleon effective mass
• Study of spin polarized nuclear matter and finite nuclei with finite range simple effective interaction
• Effects of the Symmetry Energy and its Slope on Neutron Star Properties
• Rearrangement term in the nonlocal folding model of the nucleon optical potential
• Folding model approach to the elastic $p{+}^{12,13}$C scattering at low energies and radiative capture ${}^{12,13}$C$(p,\gamma )$ reactions