Constraints on the Symmetry Energy from PREX-II in the Multimessenger Era

Abstract

The neutron skin thickness $\Delta r_{\mathrm{np}}$ of heavy nuclei is essentially determined by the symmetry energy density slope $L(\rho )$ at ${\rho }_c=0.11{\mathrm{fm}}^{-3}\approx 2/3{\rho }_0$ (${\rho }_0$ is nuclear saturation density), roughly corresponding to the average density of finite nuclei. The PREX collaboration recently reported a model-independent extraction of $\Delta r_{\mathrm{np}}^{208}=0.283\pm 0.071$ fm for the $\Delta r_{\mathrm{np}}$ of ${}^{208}$Pb, suggesting a rather stiff symmetry energy $E_{\mathrm{sym}}(\rho )$ with $L({\rho }_c)\ge 52$ MeV. We show that the $E_{\mathrm{sym}}(\rho )$ cannot be too stiff and $L({\rho }_c)\le 73$ MeV is necessary to be compatible with (1) the ground-state properties and giant monopole resonances of finite nuclei, (2) the constraints on the equation of state of symmetric nuclear matter at suprasaturation densities from flow data in heavy-ion collisions, (3) the largest neutron star (NS) mass reported so far for PSR J0740+6620, (4) the NS tidal deformability extracted from gravitational wave signal GW170817 and (5) the mass-radius of PSR J0030+045 measured simultaneously by NICER. This allows us to obtain $52\le L({\rho }_c)\le 73$ MeV and $0.212\le \Delta r_{\mathrm{np}}^{208}\le 0.271$ fm, and further $E_{\mathrm{sym}}({\rho }_0)=34.3\pm 1.7$ MeV, $L({\rho }_0)=83.1\pm 24.7$ MeV, and $E_{\mathrm{sym}}(2{\rho }_0)=62.8\pm 15.9$ MeV. A number of critical implications on nuclear physics and astrophysics are discussed.

6 pages, 4 figures. The published PREX-II result used, results updated and discussions added. Accepted version to appear in Physical Review Research as a Letter

References in corpus (14)

• PSR J0030+0451 Mass and Radius from NICER Data and Implications for the Properties of Neutron Star Matter
• A NICER View of PSR J0030+0451: Millisecond Pulsar Parameter Estimation
• Refined Mass and Geometric Measurements of the High-Mass PSR J0740+6620
• Observation of Coherent Elastic Neutrino-Nucleus Scattering
• Neutron-Rich Nuclei in Heaven and Earth
• Accurate Determination of the Neutron Skin Thickness of ${}^{208}$Pb through Parity-Violation in Electron Scattering
• Nuclear symmetry energy probed by neutron skin thickness of nuclei
• Implications of PREX-II on the equation of state of neutron-rich matter
• Neutron skin of 208Pb, nuclear symmetry energy, and the parity radius experiment
• Higher-order effects on the incompressibility of isospin asymmetric nuclear matter
• Towards Understanding Astrophysical Effects of Nuclear Symmetry Energy
• Bayesian Inference of the Symmetry Energy of Super-Dense Neutron-Rich Matter from Future Radius Measurements of Massive Neutron Stars
• Symmetry Energy III: Isovector Skins
• Equation of state of dense matter in the multimessenger era

Cited by in corpus (24)

• Progress in Constraining Nuclear Symmetry Energy Using Neutron Star Observables Since GW170817
• Dense Nuclear Matter Equation of State from Heavy-Ion Collisions
• Probing the Symmetry Energy with the Spectral Pion Ratio
• Bayesian Inference of the Symmetry Energy and the Neutron Skin in ${}^{48}$Ca and ${}^{208}$Pb from CREX and PREX-2
• New insights into nuclear physics and weak mixing angle using electroweak probes
• The Radius of PSR J0740+6620 from NICER and XMM-Newton Data
• Effect of isovector scalar meson on equation of state of dense matter within relativistic mean field model
• Probing high-density nuclear symmetry energy with ${\Xi }^{-}/{\Xi }^0$ ratio in heavy-ion collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}\sim 3$ GeV
• Bayesian inference of neutron-star observables based on effective nuclear interactions
• Impact of Symmetry Energy on Sound Speed and Spinodal Decomposition in Dense Neutron-Rich Matter
• Constraining equation of state of nuclear matter by charge-changing cross section measurements of mirror nuclei
• Neutron star matter based on a parity doublet model including the $a_0(980)$ meson
• Observational constraint from the heaviest pulsar PSR J0952-0607 on the equation of state of dense matter in relativistic mean field model
• Novel Scalings of Neutron Star Properties from Analyzing Dimensionless Tolman--Oppenheimer--Volkoff Equations
• Estimation of the slope of nuclear symmetry energy via charge radii of mirror nuclei
• Refined determination of the weak mixing angle at low energy
• Phase transition and nuclear symmetry energy from neutron star observations: Constraints in light of PSR J0614--3329
• Evidence for strong isovector nuclear spin-orbit interaction
• Correlation between the symmetry energy slope and the deconfinement phase transition
• Bayesian analysis of a relativistic hadronic model constrained by recent astrophysical observations
• Equation of State Independent Determination on the Radius of a 1.4 $M_{\odot }$ Neutron Star Using Mass-Radius Measurements
• Nucleon Short-Range Correlations and High-Momentum Dynamics: Implications on the Equation of State of Dense Matter
• Constraining neutron star properties through parity-violating electron scattering experiments and relativistic point coupling interactions
• Isospin blocking and its effects in heavy-ion collisions