Density matrix expansion for the MDI interaction

TL;DR

This paper develops a density matrix expansion for the MDI interaction, deriving a Skyrme-like effective interaction and applying it to study neutron star crust properties.

Contribution

It introduces a novel density matrix expansion for the MDI interaction, linking finite-range exchange to a zero-range Skyrme-like form and applying it to neutron star matter.

Findings

Derived transition density and pressure at neutron star crusts.

Established a Skyrme-like effective interaction from the MDI model.

Provided insights into isospin effects in nuclear matter.

Abstract

By assuming that the isospin- and momentum-dependent MDI interaction has a form similar to the Gogny-like effective two-body interaction with a Yukawa finite-range term and the momentum dependence only originates from the finite-range exchange interaction, we determine its parameters by comparing the predicted potential energy density functional in uniform nuclear matter with what has been usually given and used extensively in transport models for studying isospin effects in intermediate-energy heavy-ion collisions as well as in investigating the properties of hot asymmetric nuclear matter and neutron star matter. We then use the density matrix expansion to derive from the resulting finite-range exchange interaction an effective Skyrme-like zero-range interaction with density-dependent parameters. As an application, we study the transition density and pressure at the inner edge of neutron star crusts using the stability conditions derived from the linearized Vlasov equation for the neutron star matter.