Liquid Drop Model for Nuclear Matter in the Dilute Limit

Abstract

We consider the liquid drop model for nuclei interacting with a neutralizing homogeneous background of electrons. The regime we are interested in is when the fraction between the electronic and the nuclear charge density is small. We show that in this dilute limit the thermodynamic ground state energy is given to leading order by that of an isolated nucleus.

20 pages. v2: Appendix about the thermodynamic limit added. v3: Minor corrections. v4: Lower bound strengthened, proof simplified