Statistical Hauser-Feshbach Model Description of (n,α) Reaction Cross Sections for the Weak s-Process

The (n,α) reaction contributes in many processes of energy generation and nucleosynthesis in stellar environment. Since experimental data are available for a limited number of nuclei and in restricted energy ranges, at present only theoretical studies can provide predictions for all astrophysically relevant (n,α) reaction cross sections. The purpose of this work is to study (n,α) reaction cross sections for a set of nuclei contributing in the weak s-process nucleosynthesis. Theory framework is based on the statistical Hauser-Feshbach model implemented in TALYS code with nuclear masses and level densities based on Skyrme energy density functional. In addition to the analysis of the properties of calculated (n,α) cross sections, the Maxwellian averaged cross sections are described and analyzed for the range of temperatures in stellar environment. Model calculations determined astrophysically relevant energy windows in which (n,α) reactions occur in stars. In order to reduce the uncertainties in modeling (n,α) reaction cross sections for the s-process, novel experimental studies are called for. Presented results on the effective energy windows for (n,α) reaction in weak s-process provide a guidance for the priority energy ranges in the future experimental studies.

Surface properties for Ne, Na, Mg, Al and Si isotopes in the Coherent Density Fluctuation Model using the relativistic mean field densities

We have systematically studied the surface properties, such as symmetry energy, neutron pressure, and symmetry energy curvature coefficient for Ne, Na, Mg, Al, and Si nuclei from the proton to neutron drip-lines. The Coherent Density Fluctuation Model (CDFM) is used to estimate these quantities taking the relativistic mean-field densities as inputs. The Br ¨uckner energy density functional is taken for the nuclear matter binding energy and local density approximation is applied for its conversion to coordinate space. The symmetry energy again decomposed to the volume and surface components within the liquid drop model formalism to the volume and surface parts separately. Before calculating the surface properties of finite nuclei, the calculated bulk properties are compared with the experimental data, whenever available. The NL3* parameter set with the BCS pairing approach in an axially deformed frame-work is used to take care of the pairing correlation when needed. The deformed density is converted to its spherical equivalent with a two Gaussian fitting, which is used as an input for the calculation of weight function in the CDFM approximation. With the help of the symmetry energy for the recently isotopes ²⁹F, ²⁸Ne, ^29,30Na and ^31,35,36Mg are considered to be within the island of inversion emphasized [Phys. Lett. B 772, 529 (2017)]. Although we get large symmetric energies corresponding to a few neutron numbers for this isotopic chain as expected, an irregular trend appears for all these considered nuclei. The possible reason behind this abnormal behavior of symmetry energy for these lighter mass nuclei is also included in the discussion, which gives a direction for future analysis.

Unified Equation of State for Neutron Stars Based on the Gogny Interaction

The effective Gogny interactions of the D1 family were established by D. Gogny more than forty years ago with the aim to describe simultaneously the mean field and the pairing field corresponding to the nuclear interaction. The most popular Gogny parametrizations, namely D1S, D1N and D1M, describe accurately the ground-state properties of spherical and deformed finite nuclei all across the mass table obtained with Hartree–Fock–Bogoliubov (HFB) calculations. However, these forces produce a rather soft equation of state (EoS) in neutron matter, which leads to predict maximum masses of neutron stars well below the observed value of two solar masses. To remove this limitation, we built new Gogny parametrizations by modifying the density dependence of the symmetry energy predicted by the force in such a way that they can be applied to the neutron star domain and can also reproduce the properties of finite nuclei as good as their predecessors. These new parametrizations allow us to obtain stiffer EoS’s based on the Gogny interactions, which predict maximum masses of neutron stars around two solar masses. Moreover, other global properties of the star, such as the moment of inertia and the tidal deformability, are in harmony with those obtained with other well tested EoSs based on the SLy4 Skyrme force or the Barcelona–Catania–Paris–Madrid (BCPM) energy density functional. Properties of the core-crust transition predicted by these Gogny EoSs are also analyzed. Using these new Gogny forces, the EoS in the inner crust is obtained with the Wigner–Seitz approximation in the Variational Wigner–Kirkwood approach along with the Strutinsky integral method, which allows one to estimate in a perturbative way the proton shell and pairing corrections. For the outer crust, the EoS is determined basically by the nuclear masses, which are taken from the experiments, wherever they are available, or by HFB calculations performed with these new forces if the experimental masses are not known.