Expanding the limits of nuclear stability at finite temperature.

ABSTRACT: Properties of nuclei in hot stellar environments such as supernovae or neutron star mergers are largely unexplored. Since it is poorly understood how many protons and neutrons can be bound together in hot nuclei, we investigate the limits of nuclear existence (drip lines) at finite temperature. Here, we present mapping of nuclear drip lines at temperatures up to around 20 billion kelvins using the relativistic energy density functional theory (REDF), including treatment of thermal scattering of nucleons in the continuum. With extensive computational effort, the drip lines are determined using several REDFs with different underlying interactions, demonstrating considerable alterations of the neutron drip line with temperature increase, especially near the magic numbers. At temperatures T ≲ 

SUBMITTER: Ravlic A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10415286 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature