Surface and curvature tensions of relativistic models

TL;DR

This paper introduces a straightforward method to estimate surface and curvature tensions using nuclear mass data, which effectively predicts pasta phase free energy and aligns well with existing models.

Contribution

The paper presents a new simple fitting approach for surface and curvature tensions based on nuclear mass data and binding energy expressions.

Findings

Fittings accurately predict pasta phase free energy.

Method aligns well with Thomas-Fermi model results.

Approach is practical for applications needing surface and curvature tensions.

Abstract

In the present paper, we show a simple method to obtain fittings for the surface and curvature tensions. The method uses the nuclear mass of a spherical fully ionized atom and a simple expression for the binding energy such that a least square fit is found when confronted with the Atomic Mass Evaluation (AME) 2020. The fittings are then used to evaluate the pasta phase free energy per particle, which is confronted with the one obtained with a Thomas-Fermi fitting. The results are very encouraging and suggest that this recipe can be safely used whenever the surface and curvature tensions are necessary.