Liquid Drop Model for Nuclear Matter in the Dilute Limit

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the liquid drop model for nuclear matter with electrons, showing that in the dilute limit, the ground state energy approximates that of an isolated nucleus, simplifying the understanding of such systems.

Contribution

It demonstrates that in the dilute limit, the complex nuclear-electron system's energy simplifies to that of an isolated nucleus, providing a new approximation.

Findings

Ground state energy approximates that of an isolated nucleus in the dilute limit

The model applies to nuclei with a small fraction of electronic charge density

Provides a theoretical foundation for simplified nuclear matter calculations

Abstract

We consider the liquid drop model for nuclei interacting with a neutralizing homogeneous background of electrons. The regime we are interested in is when the fraction between the electronic and the nuclear charge density is small. We show that in this dilute limit the thermodynamic ground state energy is given to leading order by that of an isolated nucleus.