Low-Energy Heavy-Ion Reactions and the Skyrme Effective Interaction

TL;DR

This paper reviews how the Skyrme effective interaction and time-dependent density functional theory have advanced the microscopic understanding of low-energy heavy-ion collisions, highlighting the impact of interaction details on observable outcomes.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive survey of recent developments in modeling heavy-ion reactions using Skyrme interactions, emphasizing the effects of interaction components on collision observables.

Findings

Significant effects of spin-orbit interaction on observables

Impact of tensor force inclusion in models

Influence of time-odd terms in density functional

Abstract

The Skyrme effective interaction, with its multitude of parameterisations, along with its implemen- tation using the static and time-dependent density functional (TDHF) formalism have allowed for a range of microscopic calculations of low-energy heavy-ion collisions. These calculations allow variation of the effective interaction along with an interpretation of the results of this variation informed by a comparison to experimental data. Initial progress in implementing TDHF for heavy-ion collisions necessarily used many approximations in the geometry or the interaction. Over the last decade or so, the implementations have overcome all restrictions, and studies have begun to be made where details of the effective interaction are being probed. This review surveys these studies in low energy heavy-ion reactions, finding significant effects on observables from the form of the spin-orbit interaction, the use of the tensor force, and the inclusion of time-odd terms in the density functional.