arXiv subjects

Francesca Gulminelli

Publications and source records attributed to Francesca Gulminelli.

52 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2019

Quantifying the uncertainties on spinodal instability in stellar matter through meta-modeling

The influence of the uncertainties of the equation of state empirical parameters on the neutron stars crust-core phase transition is explored within a meta-modeling approach, in which the energy per particle is expanded as a Taylor series in density and asymmetry around the saturation point. The phase transition point is estimated from the intersection of the spinodal instability region for dynamical fluctuations with the chemical equilibrium curve. Special attention is paid to the inclusion of high-order parameters of the Taylor series and their influence on the transition point. An uncorrelated prior distribution is considered for the empirical parameters, with bulk properties constrained through effective field theory predictions, while the surface parameters are controlled from a fit of nuclear masses using the extended Thomas Fermi approximation. The results show that the isovector compressibility $K_{sym}$ and skewness $Q_{sym}$ have the most significant correlations with the transition point, along with the previously observed influence of the $L_{sym}$ parameter. The estimated density and pressure of the crust-core transition are $n_t = (0.071 \pm 0.011) fm^{-3}$ and $P_t = (0.294 \pm 0.102) MeV fm^{-3}$.

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arXiv2018

Estimating magnetar radii with an empirical meta-model

The presence of strong magnetic fields in neutron stars, such as in magnetars, may significantly affect their crust-core transition properties and the crust size. This knowledge is crucial in the correct interpretation of astrophysical phenomena involving magnetars, such as glitches in observed rotation frequencies, cooling, bursts and possibly tidal polarizabilities. A recently developed meta-modelling technique allows exploring the model dependence of density functional theory equation of state calculations. In this work, we extend this meta-model to investigate the effect of strong magnetic fields on spinodal instabilities of neutron star matter and the associated crust-core properties. Both Tolman-Oppenheimer-Volkov and a full self-consistent numerical calculations are performed for the neutron star structure, the results being quantitatively different for strong magnetic fields.

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arXiv2018

Light clusters in warm stellar matter: explicit mass shifts and universal cluster-meson couplings

In-medium modifications of light cluster properties in warm stellar matter are studied within the relativistic mean-field approximation. In-medium effects are included by introducing an explicit binding energy shift analytically calculated in the Thomas-Fermi approximation, supplemented with a phenomenological modification of the cluster couplings to the $σ$ meson. A linear dependence on the $σ$ meson is assumed for the cluster mass, and the associated coupling constant is fixed imposing that the virial limit at low density is recovered. The resulting cluster abundances come out to be in reasonable agreement with constraints at higher density coming from heavy ion collision data. Some comparisons with microscopic calculations are also shown.

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arXiv2017

The role of strangeness and isospin in low density expansions of hadronic matter

We compare relativistic mean field models with their low density expansion counterparts used to mimic non-relativistic models by consistently expanding the baryonic scalar density in powers of the baryonic number density up to ${\cal O}(13/3)$, which goes two orders beyond the order considered in previous works. We show that, due to the non-trivial density dependence of the Dirac mass, the convergence of the expansion is very slow, and the validity of the non-relativistic approximation {\bf is} questionable even at subsaturation densities. In order to analyze the roles played by strangeness and isospin we consider $n-Λ$ and $n-p$ matter separately. Our results indicate that these degrees of freedom play quite different roles in the expansion mechanism and $n-Λ$ matter can be better described by low density expansions than $n-p$ matter in general.

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arXiv2017

Towards an empirical unified crust-core description of neutron stars

Understanding the properties of the crust and the core as well as its interface is essential for accurate astrophysical modeling of phenomena such as glitches, X-ray bursts or oscillations in neutron stars. To study the crust-core properties, it is crucial to develop a unified and consistent scheme to describe both the clusterized matter in the crust and homogeneous matter in the core. The low density regime in the neutron star crust is accessible to terrestrial nuclear experiments. In order to develop a consistent description of the crust and the core of neutron stars within the same formalism, we use a density functional scheme, with the model coefficients in homogeneous matter related directly to empirical nuclear observables. In this work, we extend this scheme to non-homogeneous matter to describe nuclei in the crust. We then test this scheme against nuclear observables.

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arXiv2017

Examination of strangeness instabilities and effects of strange meson couplings in dense strange hadronic matter and compact stars

Background : The emergence of hyperon degrees of freedom in neutron star matter has been associated to first order phase transitions in some phenomenological models, but conclusions on the possible physical existence of an instability in the strangeness sector are strongly model dependent. Purpose : The purpose of the present study is to assess whether strangeness instabilities are related to specific values of the largely unconstrained hyperon interactions, and to study the effect of the strange meson couplings on phenomenological properties of neutron stars and supernova matter, once these latter are fixed to fulfill the constraints imposed by hypernuclear data. Method : We consider a phenomenological RMF model sufficiently simple to allow a complete exploration of the parameter space. Results : We show that no instability at supersaturation density exists for the RMF model, as long as the parameter space is constrained by basic physical requirements. This is at variance with a non-relativistic functional, with a functional behavior fitted through ab-initio calculations. Once the study is extended to include the full octet, we show that the parameter space allows reasonable radii for canonical neutron stars as well as massive stars above two-solar mass, together with an important strangeness content of the order of 30\%, slightly decreasing with increasing entropy, even in the absence of a strangeness driven phase transition. Conclusions : We conclude that the hyperon content of neutron stars and supernova matter cannot be established with present constraints, and is essentially governed by the unconstrained coupling to the strange isoscalar meson.

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arXiv2015

Liquid-gas phase transition in strange hadronic matter with relativistic models

Background: The advent of new dedicated experimental programs on hyperon physics is rapidly boosting the field, and the possibility of synthetizing multiple strange hypernuclei requires the addition of the strangeness degree of freedom to the models dedicated to nuclear structure and nuclear matter studies at low energy. Purpose: We want to settle the influence of strangeness on the nuclear liquid-gas phase transition. Because of the large uncertainties concerning the hyperon sector, we do not aim at a quantitative estimation of the phase diagram but rather at a qualitative description of the phenomenology, as model independent as possible. Method: We analyze the phase diagram of low density matter composed of neutrons, protons and $Λ$ hyperons using a Relativistic Mean Field (RMF) model. We largely explore the parameter space to pin down generic features of the phase transition, and compare the results to ab-initio quantum Monte Carlo calculations. Results: We show that the liquid-gas phase transition is only slightly quenched by the addition of hyperons. Strangeness is seen to be an order parameter of the phase transition, meaning that dilute strange matter is expected to be unstable with respect to the formation of hyper-clusters. Conclusions: More quantitative results within the RMF model need improved functionals at low density, possibly fitted to ab-initio calculations of nuclear and $Λ$ matter.

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arXiv2014

In-medium nuclear cluster energies within the Extended Thomas-Fermi approach

A recently introduced analytical model for the nuclear density profile[1] is implemented in the Extended Thomas-Fermi (ETF) energy density functional. This allows to (i) shed a new light on the issue of the sign of surface symmetry energy in nuclear mass formulas, which is strongly related to the non-uniformity of the isospin asymmetry in finite nuclei, as well as to (ii) evaluate the in-medium corrections to the nuclear cluster energies in thermodynamic conditions relevant for the description of the (proto)-neutron star crust. The ground state configurations of the model are compared to Hartree-Fock calculations in spherical symmetry for some selected isotopic chains, and systematic errors are quantified. The in-medium modification of the nuclear mass due to the presence of a gas component is shown to strongly depend both on the density and the asymmetry of the nucleon gas. This shows the importance of accounting for such effects in the realistic modelizations of the equation of state for core-collapse supernovae and proto-neutron stars.

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arXiv2011

Boundary conditions for star matter and other periodic fermionic systems

Bulk fermionic matter, as it can be notably found in supernova matter and neutrons stars, is subject to correlations of infinite range due to the antisymmetrisation of the N-body wave function, which cannot be explicitly accounted for in a practical simulation. This problem is usually addressed in condensed matter physics by means of the so-called Twist Averaged Boundary Condition method. A different ansatz based on the localized Wannier representation has been proposed in the context of antisymmetrized molecular dynamics. In this paper we work out the formal relation between the two approaches. We show that, while the two coincide when working with exact eigenstates of the N-body Hamiltonian, differences appear in the case of variational approaches, which are currently used for the description of stellar matter. Some model applications with Fermionic Molecular Dynamics are shown.

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arXiv2009

Bimodal behavior of the heaviest fragment distribution in projectile fragmentation

The charge distribution of the heaviest fragment detected in the decay of quasi-projectiles produced in intermediate energy heavy-ion collisions has been observed to be bimodal. This feature is expected as a generic signal of phase transition in non-extensive systems. In this paper we present new analyses of experimental data from Au on Au collisions at 60, 80 and 100 MeV/nucleon showing that bimodality is largely independent of the data selection procedure, and of entrance channel effects. An estimate of the latent heat of the transition is extracted.

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arXiv2007

Isospin-dependent clusterization of Neutron-Star Matter

Because of the presence of a liquid-gas phase transition in nuclear matter, compact-star matter can present a region of instability against the formation of clusters. We investigate this phase separation in a matter composed of neutrons, protons and electrons, within a Skyrme-Lyon mean-field approach. Matter instability and phase properties are characterized through the study of the free-energy curvature. The effect of beta-equilibrium is also analyzed in detail, and we show that the opacity to neutrinos has an influence on the presence of clusterized matter in finite-temperature proto-neutron stars.

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arXiv2007

What Can be Learned Studying the Distribution of the Biggest Fragment ?

In the canonical formalism of statistical physics, a signature of a first order phase transition for finite systems is the bimodal distribution of an order parameter. Previous thermodynamical studies of nuclear sources produced in heavy-ion collisions provide information which support the existence of a phase transition in those finite nuclear systems. Some results suggest that the observable Z1 (charge of the biggest fragment) can be considered as a reliable order parameter of the transition. This talk will show how from peripheral collisions studied with the INDRA detector at GSI we can obtain this bimodal behaviour of Z1. Getting rid of the entrance channel effects and under the constraint of an equiprobable distribution of excitation energy (E*), we use the canonical description of a phase transition to link this bimodal behaviour with the residual convexity of the entropy. Theoretical (with and without phase transition) and experimental Z1-E* correlations are compared. This comparison allows us to rule out the case without transition. Moreover that quantitative comparison provides us with information about the coexistence region in the Z1-E* plane which is in good agreement with that obtained with the signal of abnormal uctuations of configurational energy (microcanonical negative heat capacity).

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arXiv2006

Isospin fractionation : equilibrium versus spinodal decomposition

This paper focuses on the isospin properties of the asymmetric nuclear-matter liquid-gas phase transition analyzed in a mean-field approach, using Skyrme effective interactions. We compare two different mechanisms of phase separation for low-density matter: equilibrium and spinodal decomposition. The isospin properties of the phases are deduced from the free-energy curvature, which contains information both on the average isospin content and on the system fluctuations. Some implications on experimentally accessible isospin observables are presented.

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arXiv2005

Distribution of the largest fragment in the Lattice Gas Model

The distribution of the largest fragment is studied in different regions of the Lattice Gas model phase diagram. We show that first and second order transitions can be clearly distinguished in the grancanonical ensemble, while signals typical of a continuous transition are seen inside the coexistence region if a mass conservation constraint is applied. Some possible implications of these findings for heavy ion multifragmentation experiments are discussed.

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arXiv2004

Generalized Gibbs ensembles for time dependent processes

An information theory description of finite systems explicitly evolving in time is presented for classical as well as quantum mechanics. We impose a variational principle on the Shannon entropy at a given time while the constraints are set at a former time. The resulting density matrix deviates from the Boltzmann kernel and contains explicit time odd components which can be interpreted as collective flows. Applications include quantum brownian motion, linear response theory, out of equilibrium situations for which the relevant information is collected within different time scales before entropy saturation, and the dynamics of the expansion.

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arXiv2003

Exact pairing correlations in one-dimensional trapped fermions with stochastic mean-field wave-functions

The canonical thermodynamic properties of a one-dimensional system of interacting spin-1/2 fermions with an attractive zero-range pseudo-potential are investigated within an exact approach. The density operator is evaluated as the statistical average of dyadics formed from a stochastic mean-field propagation of independent Slater determinants. For an harmonically trapped Fermi gas and for fermions confined in a 1D-like torus, we observe the transition to a quasi-BCS state with Cooper-like momentum correlations and an algebraic long-range order. For few trapped fermions in a rotating torus, a dominant superfluid component with quantized circulation can be isolated.

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