Thermal properties of 16O and 40Ca with a realistic effective Hamiltonian.

Abstract

A realistic microscopic effective nuclear Hamiltonian, ${H}_{\mathrm{eff}}$, is employed with the spherical finite temperature Hartree-Fock approximation to evaluate the thermodynamic properties of $^{16}\mathrm{O}$ and $^{40}\mathrm{Ca}$. We introduce a simple method to scale ${H}_{\mathrm{eff}}$ to accommodate the A-dependent effects. We then adjust the Hamiltonian slightly to reproduce appropriate ground state properties within spherical Hartree-Fock theory. A range of acceptable temperatures for each model space size can then be determined. The binding energy, free energy, density distributions, entropy, neutron and proton chemical potentials and single particle energies, occupation probabilities, and other properties are evaluated for temperatures T\ensuremath{\le}7 MeV. We provide convenient parametrizations for the excitation energy, rms radius, average density, and entropy as a function of T. We find the thermal response of these nuclei to be substantially greater than that obtained with zero range phenomenological forces.