The nuclear symmetry energy and the breaking of the isospin symmetry: how do they reconcile with each other?

TL;DR

This paper addresses the apparent inconsistency between nuclear symmetry energy, isospin symmetry breaking, and the energy of the Isobaric Analog State by proposing a new effective interaction that reconciles these aspects.

Contribution

It introduces a novel effective interaction and comprehensive calculations to resolve discrepancies in understanding nuclear symmetry energy and isospin symmetry breaking.

Findings

Successfully reproduces IAS excitation energy

Reconciles nuclear symmetry energy with isospin symmetry breaking

Provides a new effective interaction for nuclear models

Abstract

We analyze and propose a solution to the apparent inconsistency between our current knowledge of the Equation of State of asymmetric nuclear matter, the energy of the Isobaric Analog State (IAS) in a heavy nucleus such as 208Pb, and the isospin symmetry breaking forces in the nuclear medium. This is achieved by performing state-of-the-art Hartree-Fock plus Random Phase Approximation calculations of the IAS that include all isospin symmetry breaking contributions. To this aim, we propose a new effective interaction that is successful in reproducing the IAS excitation energy without compromising other properties of finite nuclei.