https://doi.org/10.1140/epja/i2014-14019-8
Regular Article - Theoretical Physics
Symmetry energy of warm nuclear systems
1
Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, 1/AF Bidhannagar, 700064, Kolkata, India
2
Departament d’Estructura i Constituents de la Matèria, Facultat de Fısica, and Institut de Ciències del Cosmos, Universitat de Barcelona, Diagonal 645, 08028, Barcelona, Spain
* e-mail: bijay.agrawal@saha.ac.in
Received:
24
June
2013
Revised:
19
September
2013
Accepted:
23
September
2013
Published online:
25
February
2014
The temperature dependence of the symmetry energy and symmetry free energy coefficients of infinite nuclear matter and of finite nuclei is investigated. For infinite matter, both these coefficients are found to have a weaker dependence on temperature at densities close to saturation; at low but homogeneous densities, the temperature dependence becomes stronger. For finite systems, different definitions of symmetry energy coefficients are encountered in the literature yielding different values. A resolution to this problem is suggested 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 nucleus is modeled in a subtracted finite-temperature Thomas-Fermi framework, with dynamical surface phonon coupling to nucleonic motion plugged in. Contrary to infinite nuclear matter, a substantial change in the symmetry energy coefficients is observed for finite nuclei with temperature.
© SIF, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, 2014
