Extracting Skyrme energy density functional parameters with Heavy-Ion Collision Data

TL;DR

This paper identifies 22 effective Skyrme parameter sets that, when used in a transport model, successfully describe heavy ion collision data and help estimate the neutron skin of lead-208.

Contribution

It introduces a method to extract Skyrme energy density functional parameters directly from heavy-ion collision data, enhancing their empirical foundation.

Findings

22 effective Skyrme parameter sets identified

Neutron skin of $^{208}$Pb estimated as 0.18±0.04 fm

Skyrme parameters improve modeling of heavy ion collisions

Abstract

The effective Skyrme energy density functionals are widely used in the study of nuclear structure, nuclear reaction and neutron star, but they are less established from the heavy ion collision data. In this work, we find 22 effective Skyrme parameter sets, when incorporated in use the transport model, ImQMD, to describe the heavy ion collision data, such as isospin diffusion data at 35 MeV/u and 50 MeV/u. We use these sets to calculate the neutron skin of $^{208}$Pb based on the restricted density variation method, and obtain the neutron skin of $^{208}$Pb in the range of $\delta R_{np}=0.18\pm0.04$ fm.