Quantum statistical effects in warm nuclear matter with light and heavy clusters

TL;DR

This study explores how quantum statistical effects influence the composition of hot, dense nuclear matter, revealing that heavy nuclei formation suppresses light cluster densities and quantum effects like Bose-Einstein condensation.

Contribution

It demonstrates the impact of heavy nuclei on light cluster densities and the conditions under which alpha-particle condensation can occur in nuclear matter.

Findings

Heavy nuclei reduce light cluster densities in stellar matter.

Quantum effects like Bose-Einstein condensation are suppressed by heavy nuclei.

Alpha-particle condensation is predicted only in idealized conditions without heavy nuclei.

Abstract

We have investigated the compositions of hot and dense nuclear matter with the focus on the quantum-statistical effects for light clusters. Our main observation is that the formation of heavy nuclei in stellar matter leads to the reduction of the number densities of light clusters. As a result, the quantum statistical effects such as Bose-Einstein condensation of deuterons and $\alpha$-particles are suppressed. The deviations in number densities of light clusters between Boltzmann and quantum statistics at sub-nuclear densities and temperatures 1-3 MeV are $\sim$0.2$\%$ at most. The condensation of $\alpha$-particles in iso-symmetric nuclear matter is predicted only under the assumptions that it is composed only of nucleons and light clusters and no heavy nuclei are present. We also found that the Coulomb screening effects hardly affect the critical baryon densities for alpha condensation, although mass and chemical potential of $\alpha$-particles are modified.