Thermal properties of the nuclear surface

Abstract

The thermal evolution of a few thermodynamic properties of the nuclear surface like its thermodynamic potential energy, entropy and the symmetry free energy are examined for both semi-infinite nuclear matter and finite nuclei. The Thomas-Fermi model is employed. Three Skyrme interactions, namely, SkM${}^{\ast }$, SLy4 and SK255 are used for the calculations to gauge the dependence of the nuclear surface properties on the energy density functionals. For finite nuclei, the surface observables are computed from a global liquid-drop inspired fit of the energies and free energies of a host of nuclei covering the entire periodic table. The hot nuclear system is modelled in a subtracted Thomas-Fermi framework. Compared to semi-infinite nuclear matter, substantial changes in the surface symmetry energy of finite nuclei are indicated; surface thermodynamic potential energies for the two systems are, however, not too different. Analytic expressions to fit the temperature and asymmetry dependence of the surface thermodynamic potential of semi-infinite nuclear matter and the temperature dependence of the surface free energy of finite nuclei are given.

arXiv comment10 pages including 8 figures. Phys. Rev. C (accepted, in press)

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Cited by in corpus (11)

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• Temperature dependence of the symmetry energy and neutron skins in Ni, Sn, and Pb isotopic chains
• Temperature dependence of the volume and surface contributions to the nuclear symmetry energy within the coherent density fluctuation model
• Symmetry energy of hot nuclei in the relativistic Thomas-Fermi approximation
• Isospin dependent properties of the isotopic chain of Scandium and Titanium nuclei within the relativistic mean-field formalism
• Self consistent calculation of the nuclear composition in hot and dense stellar matter
• Effects of finite size and symmetry energy on the phase transition of stellar matter at subnuclear densities
• Multifragmentation model for the production of astrophysical strangelets
• Equilibrium nuclear ensembles taking into account vaporization of hot nuclei in dense stellar matter
• The phase transition in hot $\Lambda$ hypernuclei within relativistic Thomas-Fermi approximation
• Effect of liquid drop model parameters on nuclear liquid gas phase transition