Differential analysis of incompressibility in neutron-rich nuclei

TL;DR

This paper introduces a differential method to accurately extract the isospin-dependent incompressibility parameters of nuclei from experimental data, providing new insights into nuclear matter properties relevant for physics and astrophysics.

Contribution

A novel differential approach to independently determine extit{K}_ au and extit{K}_i from extit{K}_A data of two nuclei in an isotope chain, improving accuracy and reducing uncertainties.

Findings

Determined extit{K}_ au values of -616±59 MeV and -623±86 MeV from isotope pairs.

Found extit{K}_ ext{infinity} values consistent with current community consensus.

Provided insights into the 'Soft Sn Puzzle' and 'Stiff Pb Phenomenon' in nuclear incompressibility.

Abstract

Both the incompressibility \Ka of a finite nucleus of mass A and that ($K_{\infty}$) of infinite nuclear matter are fundamentally important for many critical issues in nuclear physics and astrophysics. While some consensus has been reached about the $K_{\infty}$, accurate theoretical predictions and experimental extractions of $K_{\tau}$ characterizing the isospin dependence of \Ka have been very difficult. We propose a differential approach to extract the \Kt and \Ki independently from the \Ka data of any two nuclei in a given isotope chain. Applying this new method to the \Ka data from isoscalar giant monopole resonances (ISGMR) in even-even Pb, Sn, Cd and Ca isotopes taken by U. Garg {\it et al.} at the Research Center for Nuclear Physics (RCNP), Osaka University, Japan, we find that the $^{106}$Cd-$^{116}$Cd and $^{112}$Sn-$^{124}$Sn pairs having the largest differences in isospin asymmetries in their respective isotope chains measured so far provide consistently the most accurate up-to-date \Kt value of $K_{\tau}=-616\pm 59$ MeV and $K_{\tau}=-623\pm 86$ MeV, respectively, largely independent of the remaining uncertainties of the surface and Coulomb terms in expanding the $K_{\rm A}$, while the $K_{\infty}$ values extracted from different isotopes chains are all well within the current uncertainty range of the community consensus for $K_{\infty}$. Moreover, the size and origin of the "Soft Sn Puzzle" is studied with respect to the "Stiff Pb Phenomenon". It is found that the latter is favored due to a much larger (by $\sim 380$ MeV) \Kt for Pb isotopes than for Sn isotopes, while the \Ki from analyzing the \Ka data of Sn isotopes is only about 5 MeV less than that from analyzing the Pb data.