Saturation properties of hot asymmetric nuclear matter using M3Y effective nucleon-nucleon interaction

Abstract

Understanding the nuclear equation of state (EOS) is important for a broad range of applications ranging from nuclear structure to nuclear astrophysics. In this paper we apply a non-relativistic Hartree-Fock scheme to study the temperature dependence of the EOS of hot isospin-asymmetric nuclear matter (ANM), based on M3Y-type semi-realistic nucleon-nucleon interactions. We focus on the temperature dependence of the nuclear and thermodynamic properties of hot ANM at its equilibrium saturation point. The results show that increasing the temperature of the hot ANM decreases its saturation binding energy, shifting it to a higher saturation density, and increases its attractive saturation free energy, shifting it to a lower density. This makes the hotter ANM the less bound. Increasing the isospin-asymmetry of the ANM decreases both the saturation binding- and free-energy, and their corresponding densities. The binding (free energy) saturation point disappears at the temperatures larger than 17 MeV (14 MeV). The influence of temperature on the saturation binding and free energy increases with increasing T, but it remains almost steady with increasing the isospin-asymmetry. A maximum isospin-asymmetry Imax=0.81±0.02 is indicated for a semi-cold bound ANM having saturated free energy.