# Effects of Neutron-Proton Short-Range Correlation on the Equation of State of Dense Neutron-Rich Nucleonic Matter

## TL;DR

This paper explores how neutron-proton short-range correlations influence the nuclear equation of state, especially the symmetry energy, by affecting nucleon momentum distributions and potentially observable nuclear properties.

## Contribution

It introduces a modified energy density functional incorporating SRC effects on nucleon momentum distributions and analyzes their impact on the nuclear symmetry energy.

## Key findings

- SRC induces a high-momentum tail in nucleon distributions.
- Protons are more depleted from the Fermi sea in neutron-rich matter.
- SRC effects significantly modify the density dependence of nuclear symmetry energy.

## Abstract

The strongly isospin-dependent tensor force leads to short-range correlations (SRC) between neutron-proton (deuteron-like) pairs much stronger than those between proton-proton and neutron-neutron pairs. As a result of the short-range correlations, the single-nucleon momentum distribution develops a high-momentum tail above the Fermi surface. Because of the strongly isospin-dependent short-range correlations, in neutron-rich matter a higher fraction of protons will be depleted from its Fermi sea and populate above the Fermi surface compared to neutrons. This isospin-dependent nucleon momentum distribution may have effects on: (1) nucleon spectroscopic factors of rare isotopes, (2) the equation of state especially the density dependence of nuclear symmetry energy, (3) the coexistence of a proton-skin in momentum space and a neutron-skin in coordinate space (i.e., protons move much faster than neutrons near the surface of heavy nuclei). In this talk, we discuss these features and their possible experimental manifestations. As an example, SRC effects on the nuclear symmetry energy are discussed in detail using a modified Gogny-Hartree-Fock (GHF) energy density functional (EDF) encapsulating the SRC-induced high momentum tail (HMT) in the single-nucleon momentum distribution.