How well known is the compressibility of nuclear matter?

TL;DR

This paper questions the precision of the nuclear matter compressibility modulus, demonstrating it can vary significantly within models, and proposes a new flexible methodology to better determine this property from nuclear experiments.

Contribution

It introduces a new approach using more flexible energy density functionals to better estimate nuclear matter compressibility from experimental data.

Findings

The compressibility modulus can be shifted by four times the estimated uncertainty.

Models with low $K_\sat$ imply a low quark onset density for neutron stars.

Current estimates of $K_\sat$ may be significantly uncertain.

Abstract

The most accurate approach to determine the compressibility of nuclear matter remains the one based on microscopic Energy Density Functionals (EDFs). Recent analyses yield a value for nuclear incompressibility modulus $K_\sat=240\pm 20$~MeV, defined in nuclear matter as the second derivative of the energy per particle at saturation density. However, we demonstrate that the compressibility modulus can be reduced to values shifted by four times the suggested uncertainty, i.e., $K_\sat\approx 160$~MeV, by providing examples based on models where the second derivative ($K_\sat$) and third derivative ($Q_\sat$) of the energy per particle at saturation density can be independently varied, while the experimental binding energies, charge radii, and ISGMR data in $^{120}$Sn and $^{208}$Pb are enforced. The present work suggests a new methodology to access the compressibility of nuclear matter from nuclear experiments, still based on microscopic models, but using EDFs containing more flexibility than the ones employed up to now. Consequences of our results for nuclear matter at supra-saturation density are also discussed by exploring the quarkyonic cross-over. We predict that, for our models with low values for $K_\sat$, the quark onset density has to be low for neutron stars to exist.