Cold neutrons trapped in external fields

Abstract

The properties of inhomogeneous neutron matter are crucial to the physics of neutron-rich nuclei and the crust of neutron stars. Advances in computational techniques now allow us to accurately determine the binding energies and densities of many neutrons interacting via realistic microscopic interactions and confined in external fields. We perform calculations for different external fields and across several shells to place important constraints on inhomogeneous neutron matter, and hence the large isospin limit of the nuclear energy density functionals that are used to predict properties of heavy nuclei and neutron star crusts. We find important differences between microscopic calculations and current density functionals; in particular the isovector gradient terms are significantly more repulsive than in traditional models, and the spin-orbit and pairing forces are comparatively weaker.

5 pages, 4 figures, final version. Additional material reference added in the published version

References in corpus (6)

• Strongly paired fermions: Cold atoms and neutron matter
• Quantum Monte Carlo calculation of the equation of state of neutron matter
• Shell Structure of Exotic Nuclei
• Equation of state of superfluid neutron matter and the calculation of ${}^1{S}_0$ pairing gap
• Unitary Fermi Gas in a Harmonic Trap
• Equation of state of low--density neutron matter and the ${}^1{S}_0$ pairing gap

Cited by in corpus (2)

• Resonantly Interacting Fermions In a Box
• Density-dependent nucleon-nucleon interaction from three-nucleon forces