Thermal Effects in Dense Matter Beyond Mean Field Theory

TL;DR

This paper employs a next-to-leading order Fermi Liquid Theory to accurately compute thermal properties of dense nuclear matter beyond mean field approximations, achieving good agreement with numerical results up to certain densities and temperatures.

Contribution

It introduces a semi-analytical method using next-to-leading order corrections within Fermi Liquid Theory for thermal properties of dense matter, surpassing mean field limitations.

Findings

Accurate semi-analytical results for entropy up to 2 per baryon.

Excellent agreement with numerical calculations at sub-nuclear densities.

Rapid evaluation of the equation of state using Landau effective mass.

Abstract

The formalism of next-to-leading order Fermi Liquid Theory is employed to calculate the thermal properties of symmetric nuclear and pure neutron matter in a relativistic many-body theory beyond the mean field level which includes two-loop effects. For all thermal variables, the semi-analytical next-to-leading order corrections reproduce results of the exact numerical calculations for entropies per baryon up to 2. This corresponds to excellent agreement down to sub-nuclear densities for temperatures up to $20$ MeV. In addition to providing physical insights, a rapid evaluation of the equation of state in the homogeneous phase of hot and dense matter is achieved through the use of the zero-temperature Landau effective mass function and its derivatives.