arXiv subjects

F. Gulminelli

Publications and source records attributed to F. Gulminelli.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2020

Experimental study of precisely selected evaporation chains in the decay of excited $^{25}$Mg

The reaction $^{12}$C + $^{13}$C at 95 MeV bombarding energy is studied using the GARFIELD + Ring Counter apparatus located at the INFN Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro. In this paper we want to investigate the de-excitation of $^{25}$Mg aiming both at a new stringent test of the statistical description of nuclear decay and a direct comparison with the decay of the system $^{24}$Mg formed through $^{12}$C+$^{12}$C reactions previously studied. Thanks to the large acceptance of the detector and to its good fragment identification capabilities, we could apply stringent selections on fusion-evaporation events, requiring their completeness in charge. The main decay features of the evaporation residues and of the emitted light particles are overall well described by a pure statistical model; however, as for the case of the previously studied 24Mg, we observed some deviations in the branching ratios, in particular for those chains involving only the evaporation of $α$ particles. From this point of view the behavior of the $^{24}$Mg and $^{25}$Mg decay cases appear to be rather similar. An attempt to obtain a full mass balance even without neutron detection is also discussed.

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arXiv2020

Sensitivity of the evaporation residue observables to the symmetry energy

The static properties of the heaviest residue and unbound particles produced in central $^{64,58}Ni$ on $^{64,58}Ni$ collisions at 50 MeV/nucleon are predicted within the BUU transport model, in order to explore the sensitivity of those observables to the density dependence of the symmetry energy. We include fluctuations in the collision integral and use a meta-modelling for the mean-field which allows an independent variation of the different empirical parameters of the equation of state. We find that the isospin ratio of pre-equilibrium particles is a good estimator of the stiffness of the symmetry energy, in agreement with previous works. In addition to that, whatever be the functional form of the equation of state, we show that a higher symmetry energy at subsaturation densities leads to an increased size and isotopic ratio for the heaviest residue. This is understood in terms of energy sharing between the pre-equilibrium particles and the (quasi)fused system. The combination of the two observables might be an interesting tool to constrain the different density dependence below and above saturation, which is linked to the relatively poorly known parameter $K_{sym}$.

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arXiv2020

Inner crust of a neutron star at crystallization in a multi-component approach

The possible presence of amorphous and heterogeneous phases in the inner crust of a neutron star is expected to reduce the electrical conductivity of the crust, with potentially important consequences on the magneto-thermal evolution of the star. In cooling simulations, the disorder is quantified by an impurity parameter which is often taken as a free parameter. We aim to give a quantitative prediction of the impurity parameter as a function of the density in the crust,performing microscopic calculations including up-to-date microphysics of the crust. A multi-component approach is developed at finite temperature using a compressible liquid drop description of the ions with an improved energy functional based on recent microscopic nuclear models and optimized on extended Thomas-Fermi calculations. Thermodynamic consistency is ensured by adding a rearrangement term and deviations from the linear mixing rule are included in the liquid phase. The impurity parameter is consistently calculated at the crystallization temperature as determined in the one-component plasma approximation for the different functionals. Our calculations show that at the crystallization temperature the composition of the inner crust is dominated by nuclei with charge number around $Z \approx 40$, while the range of the $Z$ distribution varies from about 20 near the neutron drip to about 40 closer to the crust-core transition. This reflects on the behavior of the impurity parameter that monotonically increases with density up to around 40 in the deeper regions of the inner crust. Our study shows that the contribution of impurities is non-negligible, thus potentially having an impact on the transport properties in the neutron-star crust. The obtained values of the impurity parameter represent a lower limit; larger values are expected in the presence of non-spherical geometries and/or fast cooling dynamics.

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arXiv2019

Crystallization of the outer crust of a non-accreting neutron star

The interior of a neutron star (NS) is usually assumed to be made of cold catalyzed matter. However, the outer layers are unlikely to remain in full equilibrium during the formation of the star and its cooling, especially after crystallization. We study the cooling and equilibrium composition of the outer layers of a NS down to crystallization. Here the impurity parameter, usually a free parameter in cooling simulations, is calculated self-consistently using a microscopic model for which a unified equation of state has recently been determined. We follow the evolution of the nuclear distributions of the multi-component Coulomb liquid plasma (MCP) fully self-consistently, adapting a general formalism originally developed for the description of supernova cores. We calculate the impurity parameter at the crystallization as determined in the one-component plasma (OCP) approximation. Our analysis shows that the sharp changes in composition obtained in the OCP approximation are smoothed out when a full nuclear distribution is allowed. The Coulomb coupling parameter at melting is found to be reasonably close to the canonical value of 175, except for specific pressures for which supercooling occurs in the OCP approximation. Our MCP treatment leads to non-monotonic variations of the impurity parameter with pressure. Its values can change by several orders of magnitude reaching about 50, suggesting that the crust may be composed of an alternation of pure (highly conductive) and impure (highly resistive) layers. The results presented here complement the recent unified equation of state obtained with the same model. Our self-consistent approach to hot MCP shows that the presence of impurities in the outer crust of a NS is non-negligible and may have a sizeable impact on transport properties. In turn, this may have important implications for the cooling of NS and their magneto-rotational evolution.

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arXiv2019

Crystallization of the inner crust of a neutron star and the influence of shell effects

Context. In the cooling process of a non-accreting neutron star, the composition and properties of the crust are thought to be fixed at the finite temperature where nuclear reactions fall out of equilibrium. A lower estimation for this temperature is given by the crystallization temperature, which can be as high as $\approx 7\times 10^9$ K in the inner crust, potentially leading to sizeable differences with respect to the simplifying cold-catalyzed matter hypothesis. Aims. We extend the recent work by Fantina et al. (2019) on the outer crust, to the study of the crystallization of the inner crust and the associated composition in the one-component plasma approximation. Methods. The finite temperature variational equations for non-uniform matter in both the liquid and the solid phases are solved using a compressible liquid-drop approach with parameters optimized on four different microscopic models which cover the present uncertainties in nuclear modeling. Results. We consider separately the effect of the different nuclear ingredients with their associated uncertainties, namely the nuclear equation of state, the surface properties in the presence of a uniform gas of dripped neutrons, and the proton shell effects arising from the ion single-particle structure. Our results suggest that the highest source of model dependence comes from the smooth part of the nuclear functional. Conclusions. We show that shell effects play an important role at the lowest densities close to the outer crust, but the most important physical ingredient to be settled for a quantitative prediction of the inner crust properties is the surface tension at extreme isospin values.

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arXiv2018

Nuclear Statistical Equilibrium Equation of State for Core Collapse

Extensive calculations of properties of supernova matter are presented, using the extended Nuclear Statistical Equilibrium model of PRC92 055803 (2015) based on a statistical distribution of Wigner-Seitz cells modeled using realistic nuclear mass and level density tables, complemented with a non-relativistic Skyrme functional for unbound particles and beyond drip-line nuclei. Both thermodynamic quantities and matter composition are examined as a function of baryonic density, temperature, and proton fraction, within a large domain adapted for applications in supernova simulations. The results are also provided in the form of a table, with grid mesh and format compatible with the CompOSE platform [http://compose.obspm.fr/] for direct use in supernova simulations. Detailed comparisons are also presented with other existing databases, all based on relativistic mean-field functionals, and the differences between the different models are outlined. We show that the strongest impact on the predictions is due to the different hypotheses used to define the cluster functional and its modifications due to the presence of a nuclear medium.

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arXiv2018

On the effect of high order empirical parameters on the nuclear equation of state

A quantitative knowledge of the nuclear Equation of State (EoS) requires an accurate estimation of the uncertainties on the EoS parameters and their mutual correlations. Such correlations are empirically observed in a large set of EoS models by different authors, but they are not always fully understood. We show that some of these correlations can be interpreted from basic physical constraints imposed on a simple Taylor expansion of the binding energy around saturation density. In particular, we investigate the correlations among the following empirical parameters: the symmetry energy $E_{sym}$, the slope and curvature of the symmetry energy $L_{sym}$ and $K_{sym}$, and the curvature and skewness of the binding energy in symmetric matter $K_{sat}$ and $Q_{sat}$. The uncertainties on these correlations is estimated through analytical modelling as well as a meta-modelling analysis of the EoS subject to physical constraints. We show that a huge dispersion of the correlations among low order empirical parameters is induced by the unknown higher order empirical parameters, such as $K_{sym}$ (second order) and $Q_{sat}$ and $Q_{sym}$ (third order). We also propose an explanation of the reason why $Q_{sat}$ is weakly constrained by present experimental data. We conclude that selective observables on high order parameters, such as $K_{sym}$ and $Q_{sat}$, should be better determined before the present uncertainties on the EoS can be further reduced.

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arXiv2018

Nuclear skin and the curvature of the symmetry energy

The effect of correlations between the slope and the curvature of the symmetry energy on ground state nuclear observables is studied within the extended Thomas-Fermi approximation. We consider different isovector probes of the symmetry energy, with a special focus on the skin of $^{208}{\rm Pb}$. We use a recently proposed meta-modelling technique to generate a large number of equation of state models, where the empirical parameters are independently varied. The results are compared to a set of calculations using 17 different Skyrme interactions. We show that the curvature parameter plays a non-negligible role on the neutron skin, while the effect is reduced in Skyrme functionals because of the correlation with the slope parameter.

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arXiv2018

French SKA White Book - The French Community towards the Square Kilometre Array

The "Square Kilometre Array" (SKA) is a large international radio telescope project characterised, as suggested by its name, by a total collecting area of approximately one square kilometre, and consisting of several interferometric arrays to observe at metric and centimetric wavelengths. The deployment of the SKA will take place in two sites, in South Africa and Australia, and in two successive phases. From its Phase 1, the SKA will be one of the most formidable scientific machines ever deployed by mankind, and by far the most impressive in terms of data throughput and required computing power. With the participation of almost 200 authors from forty research institutes and six private companies, the publication of this French SKA white paper illustrates the strong involvement in the SKA project of the French astronomical community and of a rapidly growing number of major scientific and technological players in the fields of Big Data, high performance computing, energy production and storage, as well as system integration.

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arXiv2018

Dynamical and statistical bimodality in nuclear fragmentation

The origin of bimodal behavior in the residue distribution experimentally measured in heavy ion reactions is reexamined using Boltzmann-Uehling-Uhlenbeck simulations. We suggest that, depending on the incident energy and impact parameter of the reaction, both entrance channel and exit channel effects can be at the origin of the observed behavior. Specifically, fluctuations in the reaction mechanism induced by fluctuations in the collision rate, as well as thermal bimodality directly linked to the nuclear liquid-gas phase transition are observed in our simulations. Both phenomenologies were previously proposed in the literature, but presented as incompatible and contradictory interpretations of the experimental measurements. These results indicate that heavy ion collisions at intermediate energies can be viewed as a powerful tool to study both bifurcations induced by out-of-equilibrium critical phenomena, as well as finite size precursors of thermal phase transitions.

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arXiv2018

The equation of state for dense nucleonic matter from a metamodeling. I. Foundational aspects

A metamodeling for the nucleonic equation of state (EOS), inspired from a Taylor expansion around the saturation density of symmetric nuclear matter, is proposed and parameterized in terms of the empirical parameters. The present knowledge of nuclear empirical parameters is first reviewed in order to estimate their average values and associated uncertainties, and thus defining the parameter space of the metamodeling. They are divided into isoscalar and isovector type, and ordered according to their power in the density expansion. The goodness of the metamodeling is analyzed against the predictions of the original models. In addition, since no correlation among the empirical parameters is assumed a priori, all arbitrary density dependences can be explored, which might not be accessible in existing functionals. Spurious correlations due to the assumed functional form are also removed. This meta-EOS allows direct relations between the uncertainties on the empirical parameters and the density dependence of the nuclear equation of state and its derivatives, and the mapping between the two can be done with standard Bayesian techniques. A sensitivity analysis shows that the more influential empirical parameters are the isovector parameters $L_{sym}$ and $K_{sym}$, and that laboratory constraints at super-saturation densities are essential to reduce the present uncertainties. The present metamodeling for the EOS for nuclear matter is proposed for further applications in neutron stars and supernova matter.

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arXiv2018

The equation of state for dense nucleonic matter from a meta-modeling. II. Predictions for neutron stars properties

Employing a recently proposed metamodeling for the nucleonic matter equation of state we analyze neutron star global properties such as masses, radii, momentum of inertia, and others. The impact of the uncertainty on empirical parameters on these global properties is analyzed in a Bayesian statistical approach. Physical constraints, such as causality and stability, are imposed on the equation of state and different hypotheses for the direct Urca (dUrca) process are investigated. In addition, only metamodels with maximum masses above 2$M_\odot$ are selected. Our main results are the following: the equation of state exhibits a universal behavior against the dUrca hypothesis under the condition of charge neutrality and $β$-equilibrium; neutron stars, if composed exclusively of nucleons and leptons, have a radius of 12.7$\pm$0.4~km for masses ranging from 1 up to 2$M_\odot$; a small radius lower than 11~km is very marginally compatible with our present knowledge of the nuclear empirical parameters; and finally, the most important empirical parameters which are still affected by large uncertainties and play an important role in determining the radius of neutrons stars are the slope and curvature of the symmetry energy ($L_{sym}$ and $K_{sym}$) and, to a lower extent, the skewness parameters ($Q_{sat/sym}$).

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arXiv2017

Density Functional approach for multi-strange hypernuclei: competition between $Λ$ and $Ξ^{0,-}$ hyperons

The question of the competition between $Λ$ and $Ξ^{0,-}$ in the ground-state of multi-strange hypernuclei is addressed within a non-relativistic density functional approach, partially constrained by ab-initio calculations and experimental data. The exploration of the nuclear chart for $10<Z<120$ as a function of the strangeness number is performed by adding hyperons to a nuclear core imposing either conserved total charge $Q$ or conserved proton number $Z$. We find that almost all $Λ$ hypernuclei present an instability with respect to the strong interaction decay of $Λ$ towards $Ξ^{0,-}$ and that most of the instabilities generates $Ξ^-$ (resp. $Ξ^0$) in the case of conserved total charge $Q$ (resp. proton number $Z$). The strangeness number at which the first $Ξ^{0,-}$ appear is generally lower for configurations explored in the case of conserved $Q$ compared to the case of conserved $Z$, and corresponds to the crossing between the $Λ$ and the neutron or proton chemical potentials. About two to three hundred thousands pure $Λ$ hypernuclei may exist before the onset of $Ξ^{0,-}$. The largest uncertainty comes from the unknown $ΛΞ$ interaction, since the $NΛ$ and the $NΞ$ ones can be constrained by a few experimental data. The uncertainty on the $ΛΞ$ interaction can still modify the previous estimation by 30-40\%, while the impact of the unknown $ΞΞ$ interaction is very weak.

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arXiv2017

EoS constraints from nuclear masses and radii in a meta-modeling approach

The question of correlations among empirical equation of state (EoS) parameters constrained by nuclear observables is addressed in a fully empirical meta-modeling approach. A recently proposed meta-modeling for the nuclear EoS in nuclear matter, is augmented with a single finite size term to produce a minimal unified EoS functional able to describe the smooth part of the nuclear ground state properties. This meta-model can reproduce the predictions of a large variety of models, and interpolate continuously between them. The parameter space is sampled and filtered through the constraint of nuclear mass reproduction. We show that this simple analytical meta-modeling has a predictive power on masses, radii, and skins comparable to full HF or ETF calculations with realistic energy functionals. The covariance analysis on the posterior distribution shows that no physical correlation is present between the different EoS parameters. Concerning nuclear observables, a strong correlation between the slope of the symmetry energy and the neutron skin is observed, in agreement with previous studies.

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arXiv2017

Stellar electron capture rates on neutron-rich nuclei and their impact on core-collapse

During the late stages of gravitational core-collapse of massive stars, extreme isospin asymmetries are reached within the core. Due to the lack of microscopic calculations of electron capture (EC) rates for all relevant nuclei, in general simple analytic parameterizations are employed. We study here several extensions of these parameterizations, allowing for a temperature, electron density and isospin dependence as well as for odd-even effects. The latter extra degrees of freedom considerably improve the agreement with large scale microscopic rate calculations. We find, in particular, that the isospin dependence leads to a significant reduction of the global EC rates during core collapse with respect to fiducial results, where rates optimized on calculations of stable $fp$-shell nuclei are used. Our results indicate that systematic microscopic calculations and experimental measurements in the $N\approx 50$ neutron rich region are desirable for realistic simulations of the core-collapse.

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arXiv2016

Neutron star radii and crusts: uncertainties and unified equations of state

The uncertainties in neutron star (NS) radii and crust properties due to our limited knowledge of the equation of state (EOS) are quantitatively analysed. We first demonstrate the importance of a unified microscopic description for the different baryonic densities of the star. If the pressure functional is obtained matching a crust and a core EOS based on models with different properties at nuclear matter saturation, the uncertainties can be as large as $\sim 30\%$ for the crust thickness and $4\%$ for the radius. Necessary conditions for causal and thermodynamically consistent matchings between the core and the crust are formulated and their consequences examined. A large set of unified EOS for purely nucleonic matter is obtained based on 24 Skyrme interactions and 9 relativistic mean-field nuclear parametrizations. In addition, for relativistic models 17 EOS including a transition to hyperonic matter at high density are presented. All these EOS have in common the property of describing a $2\;M_\odot$ star and of being causal within stable NS. A span of $\sim 3$ km and $\sim 4$ km is obtained for the radius of, respectively, $1.0\;M_\odot$ and $2.0\;M_\odot$ star. Applying a set of nine further constraints from experiment and ab-initio calculations the uncertainty is reduced to $\sim 1$ km and $2$ km, respectively. These residual uncertainties reflect lack of constraints at large densities and insufficient information on the density dependence of the EOS near the nuclear matter saturation point. The most important parameter to be constrained is shown to be the symmetry energy slope $L$ which exhibits a linear correlation with the stellar radius, particularly for masses $\sim 1.0\;M_\odot$. Potential constraints on $L$, the NS radius and the EOS from observations of thermal states of NS are also discussed. [Abriged]

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arXiv2016

Finite size effects on the phase diagram of the thermodynamical cluster model

The thermodynamical cluster model is known to present a first-order liquid-gas phase transition in the idealized case of an uncharged, infinitely extended medium. However, in most practical applications of this model, the system is finite and charged. In this paper we study how the phase diagram is modified by finite size and Coulomb effects. We show that the thermodynamic anomalies which are associated to the finite system counterpart of first order phase transitions, are correctly reproduced by this effective model. However, approximations in the calculation of the grandcanonical partition sum prevent obtaining the exact mapping between statistical ensembles which should be associated to finite systems. The ensemble inequivalence associated to the transition persists in the presence of Coulomb, but the phase diagram is deeply modified with respect to the simple liquid-gas phase transition characteristic of the neutral system.

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arXiv2016

Hyperons in neutron stars and supernova cores

The properties of compact stars and their formation processes depend on many physical ingredients. The composition and the thermodynamics of the involved matter is one of them. We will investigate here uniform strongly interacting matter at densities and temperatures, where potentially other components than free nucleons appear such as hyperons, mesons or even quarks. In this paper we will put the emphasis on two aspects of stellar matter with non-nucleonic degrees of freedom. First, we will study the phase diagram of baryonic matter with strangeness, showing that the onset of hyperons, as that of quark matter, could be related to a very rich phase structure with a large density domain covered by phase coexistence. Second, we will investigate thermal effects on the equation of state (EoS), showing that they favor the appearance of non-nucleonic particles. We will finish by reviewing some recent results on the impact of non-nucleonic degrees freedom in compact star mergers and core-collapse events, where thermal effects cannot be neglected.

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