Symmetry energy of hot nuclei in the relativistic Thomas-Fermi approximation

TL;DR

This paper presents a self-consistent relativistic Thomas-Fermi model to study how temperature influences the symmetry energy of hot nuclei, highlighting Coulomb effects and comparing relativistic and nonrelativistic approaches.

Contribution

It introduces a novel relativistic Thomas-Fermi framework for hot nuclei that accounts for Coulomb polarization and compares relativistic and nonrelativistic results.

Findings

Symmetry energy coefficient is significantly affected by Coulomb polarization.

Temperature dependence of physical quantities is characterized using the subtraction procedure.

Relativistic and nonrelativistic models show notable differences in results.

Abstract

We develop a self-consistent description of hot nuclei within the relativistic Thomas--Fermi approximation using the relativistic mean-field model for nuclear interactions. The temperature dependence of the symmetry energy and other physical quantities of a nucleus are calculated by employing the subtraction procedure in order to isolate the nucleus from the surrounding nucleon gas. It is found that the symmetry energy coefficient of finite nuclei is significantly affected by the Coulomb polarization effect. We also examine the dependence of the results on nuclear interactions and make a comparison between the results obtained from relativistic and nonrelativistic Thomas-Fermi calculations.