Properties of the nuclear medium

Abstract

We review our knowledge on the properties of the nuclear medium that have been studied, along many years, on the basis of many-body theory, laboratory experiments and astrophysical observations. First we consider the realm of phenomenological laboratory data and astrophysical observations, and the hints they can give on the characteristics that the nuclear medium should possess. The analysis is based on phenomenological models, that however have a strong basis on physical intuition and an impressive success. More microscopic models are also considered, and it is shown that they are able to give invaluable information on the nuclear medium, in particular on its Equation of State. The interplay between laboratory experiments and astrophysical observations are particularly stressed, and it is shown how their complementarity enriches enormously our insights into the structure of the nuclear medium. We then introduce the nucleon-nucleon interaction and the microscopic many-body theory of nuclear matter, with a critical discussion about the different approaches and their results. The Landau Fermi Liquid theory is introduced and briefly discussed. As illustrative example, we discuss neutron matter at very low density, and it is shown how it can be treated within the many-body theory. A section is dedicated to the pairing problem. The connection with nuclear structure is then discussed, on the basis of the Energy Density Functional method. The possibility to link the physics of exotic nuclei and the astrophysics of neutron stars is particularly stressed. Finally we discuss the thermal properties of the nuclear medium, in particular the liquid-gas phase transition and its connection with the phenomenology on heavy ion reactions and the cooling evolution of neutron stars. The presentation has been taken for non-specialists and possibly for non-nuclear physicists.

90 pages, 29 figures, revised version

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• The microscopic pairing gap in a slab of nuclear matter for the Argonne v18 NN-potential

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• Equations of state for supernovae and compact stars
• The Nuclear Symmetry Energy
• Coupled-cluster calculations of nucleonic matter
• New insights on the matter-gravity coupling paradigm
• Astronuclear Physics: a Tale of the Atomic Nuclei in the Skies
• Surface Emission from Neutron Stars and Implications for the Physics of their Interiors
• Are small radii of compact stars ruled out by GW170817/AT2017gfo?
• Accurate nuclear masses from a three parameter Kohn-Sham DFT approach (BCPM)
• Equation of state of dense nuclear matter and neutron star structure from nuclear chiral interactions
• Phases of dense matter in compact stars
• Comparative study of neutron and nuclear matter with simplified Argonne nucleon-nucleon potentials
• Nucleon effective masses within the Brueckner-Hartree-Fock theory: Impact on stellar neutrino emission
• Chiral Effective Field Theory Calculations of Weak Transitions in Light Nuclei
• Benchmark calculations of pure neutron matter with realistic nucleon-nucleon interactions
• Nuclear and neutron matter $G$-matrix calculations with Ch-EFT potential including effects of three-nucleon interaction
• On the Maximum Mass of Neutron Stars
• Nuclear Equation of state for Compact Stars and Supernovae
• Selecting microscopic Equations of State
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• Correlations imposed by the unitary limit between few-nucleon systems, nuclear matter and neutron stars
• Effects of Chiral Effective Field Theory Equation of State on Binary Neutron Star Mergers
• Nuclear matter properties from local chiral interactions with $\Delta$ isobar intermediate states
• Probing the equation of state of neutron star matter with gravitational waves from binary inspirals in light of GW170817: a brief review
• Nuclear symmetry energy and the r-mode instability of neutron stars
• Hot neutron stars with microscopic equations of state
• Equation of State for Nucleonic Matter and its Quark Mass Dependence from the Nuclear Force in Lattice QCD
• Nucleon effective mass in hot dense matter
• Cassiopeia A and direct URCA cooling
• Isoscalar-vector interaction and hybrid quark core in massive neutron stars
• Transport coefficients of nuclear matter in neutron star cores
• Dark matter effects on the properties of neutron stars: compactness and tidal deformability
• Dark matter effects on the properties of neutron stars: optical radii
• Nuclear matter equation of state from a quark-model nucleon-nucleon interaction
• Neutron star cooling with microscopic equations of state
• Quark matter nucleation with a microscopic hadronic equation of state
• Exact solution of the Brueckner-Bethe-Goldstone equation with three-body forces in nuclear matter
• To the nature of nuclear force
• Correlations in Nuclear Matter
• Entrainment effects in neutron-proton mixtures within the nuclear-energy density functional theory. I. Low-temperature limit
• ${}^1$S${}_0$ pairing gaps, chemical potential and entrainment matrix in superfluid neutron-star cores for the Brussels-Montreal functionals
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• Nuclear saturation in lowest-order Brueckner theory with two- and three-nucleon forces in view of chiral effective field theory
• Computational Nuclear Physics and Post Hartree-Fock Methods
• Nuclear Pairing Gaps and Neutron Star Cooling
• Accurate nuclear symmetry energy at finite temperature within a BHF approach
• Neutron star cooling and mass distributions
• Heat capacity of low density neutron matter: from quantum to classical regimes
• Faddeev Calculation of ${}_{\Lambda }^3$H incorporating 2π-exchange $\Lambda$NN Interaction
• Cooling of dark neutron stars
• Partial-wave expansion of $\Lambda NN$ three-baryon interactions in chiral effective field theory
• Estimates and power counting in uniform matter with softened interactions
• Nuclear jets in heavy-ion collisions recall a stream of sand
• Dynamic description of ternary and quaternary splits of heavy nuclear systems in the deep-inelastic regime
• Three-body Force Effects on the Properties of Neutron-rich Nuclear Matter
• Transport coefficients of dense nucleon matter at low temperature
• The one-pion-exchange potential with contact terms from lattice QCD simulations