Covariance analysis of finite temperature density functional theory: symmetric nuclear matter

TL;DR

This paper investigates the thermodynamic properties of symmetric nuclear matter at finite temperature, focusing on the liquid-gas phase transition, and uses covariance analysis to quantify uncertainties based on different density functionals.

Contribution

It applies covariance analysis to finite temperature density functional theory, providing insights into the uncertainty propagation for nuclear matter properties.

Findings

Thermodynamical properties are well constrained by zero-temperature data.

Statistical errors in phase transition parameters are relatively small.

Using multiple functionals broadens the result set.

Abstract

We study symmetric nuclear matter at finite temperature, with particular emphasis on the liquid-gas phase transition. We use a standard covariance analysis to propagate statistical uncertainties from the density functional to the thermodynamic properties. We use four functionals with known covariance matrices to obtain as wide a set of results as possible. Our findings suggest that thermodynamical properties are very well constrained by fitting data at zero temperature. The propagated statistical errors in the liquid-gas phase transition parameters are relatively small.