BigApple force and its implications to finite nuclei and astrophysical objects

TL;DR

This paper investigates the BigApple energy density functional's ability to accurately describe finite nuclei, nuclear matter, and neutron star properties, including implications for the GW190814 event, by comparing it with other relativistic mean-field models.

Contribution

It introduces the BigApple EDF and demonstrates its effectiveness in modeling finite nuclei, nuclear matter, and neutron star characteristics, aligning well with observational data.

Findings

BigApple accurately predicts finite nuclei properties.

Nuclear matter quantities match empirical values.

Predicted neutron star deformability agrees with GW190814 data.

Abstract

The secondary component of the GW190814 event left us with a question, "whether it is a supermassive neutron star or lightest black-hole?". Recently, Fattoyev et al. have obtained an energy density functional (EDF) named as BigApple, which reproduces the mass of the neutron star is 2.60 $M_\odot$ which is well consistent with GW190814 data. This study explores the properties of finite nuclei, nuclear matter, and neutron stars by using the BigApple EDF along with four well-known relativistic mean-field forces, namely NL3, G3, IOPB-I, and FSUGarnet. The finite nuclei properties like binding energy per particle, skin thickness, charge radius, single-particle energy, and two-neutron separation energy are well predicted by the BigApple for a series of nuclei. The calculated nuclear matter quantities such as incompressibility, symmetry energy, and slope parameters at saturation density are consistent with the empirical or experimental values where ever available. The predicted canonical tidal deformability by the BigApple parameter set is well-matched with the GW190814 data. Also, the dimensionless moment of inertia lies in the range given by the analysis of PSR J0737-3039A.