Nuclei embedded in an electron gas

TL;DR

This paper investigates how an electron gas influences nuclear stability and decay processes in astrophysical environments, revealing stabilizing effects and shifts in nuclear stability boundaries.

Contribution

It introduces a relativistic mean-field approach to study nuclei embedded in an electron gas, highlighting effects on decay stability and nuclear driplines in astrophysical contexts.

Findings

Electrons stabilize nuclei against alpha decay and spontaneous fission at high densities.

Screening effects shift the proton dripline to more proton-rich nuclei.

Stability against beta decay is shifted towards more neutron-rich nuclei.

Abstract

The properties of nuclei embedded in an electron gas are studied within the relativistic mean-field approach. These studies are relevant for nuclear properties in astrophysical environments such as neutron-star crusts and supernova explosions. The electron gas is treated as a constant background in the Wigner-Seitz cell approximation. We investigate the stability of nuclei with respect to alpha and beta decay. Furthermore, the influence of the electronic background on spontaneous fission of heavy and superheavy nuclei is analyzed. We find that the presence of the electrons leads to stabilizing effects for both $\alpha$ decay and spontaneous fission for high electron densities. Furthermore, the screening effect shifts the proton dripline to more proton-rich nuclei, and the stability line with respect to beta decay is shifted to more neutron-rich nuclei. Implications for the creation and survival of very heavy nuclear systems are discussed.