arXiv subjects

Paul J. Ellis

Publications and source records attributed to Paul J. Ellis.

15 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2005

Isospin Asymmetry in Nuclei, Neutron Stars, and Heavy-Ion Collisions

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arXiv2005

Isospin Asymmetry in Nuclei and Neutron Stars

The roles of isospin asymmetry in nuclei and neutron stars are investigated using a range of potential and field-theoretical models of nucleonic matter. The parameters of these models are fixed by fitting the properties of homogeneous bulk matter and closed-shell nuclei. We discuss and unravel the causes of correlations among the neutron skin thickness in heavy nuclei, the pressure of beta-equilibrated matter at a density of 0.1 fm$^{-3}$, the derivative of the nuclear symmetry energy at the same density and the radii of moderate mass neutron stars. Constraints on the symmetry properties of nuclear matter from the binding energies of nuclei are examined. The extent to which forthcoming neutron skin measurements will further delimit the symmetry properties is investigated. The impact of symmetry energy constraints for the mass and moment of inertia contained within neutron star crusts and the threshold density for the nucleon direct Urca process, all of which are potentially measurable, is explored. We also comment on the minimum neutron star radius, assuming that only nucleonic matter exists within the star.

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arXiv2003

Optically opaque color-flavor locked phase inside compact stars

The contribution of thermally excited electron-positron pairs to the bulk properties of the color-flavor locked quark phase inside compact stars is examined. The presence of these pairs causes the photon mean free path to be much smaller than a typical core radius ($R_0 \simeq 1$ km) for all temperatures above 25 keV so that the photon contribution to the thermal conductivity is much smaller than that of the Nambu-Goldstone bosons. We also find that the electrons and positrons dominate the electrical conductivity, while their contributions to the total thermal energy is negligible.

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arXiv2003

Impact of CFL Quark Matter on the Cooling of Compact Stars

The cooling mechanism of compact stars with quark cores in the color-flavor locked phase is discussed. It is argued that the high thermal conductivity of the quark core plays a key role in the stellar cooling. It implies that the cooling time of compact stars with color-flavor locked quark cores is similar to that of ordinary neutron stars, unless the star is almost completely made of color-flavor locked quark matter.

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arXiv2002

Low Energy Pion--Nucleon Scattering in the Heavy Baryon and Infrared Schemes

We study pion--nucleon scattering with a chiral lagrangian of pions, nucleons, and $Δ$-isobars to order $Q^3$, where $Q$ is a generic small momentum. We compare the results from heavy baryon chiral perturbation theory with those from the infrared regularization scheme. While the former provides a reasonable fit to the data out to a pion c.m. kinetic energy of 100 MeV, the latter is only able to fit up to 40 MeV and even then the parameters obtained are unreasonable. Difficulties with the infrared scheme in the $u$-channel are discussed.

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arXiv2002

Thermal conductivity of dense quark matter and cooling of stars

The thermal conductivity of the color-flavor locked phase of dense quark matter is calculated. The dominant contribution to the conductivity comes from photons and Nambu-Goldstone bosons associated with breaking of baryon number which are trapped in the quark core. Because of their very large mean free path the conductivity is also very large. The cooling of the quark core arises mostly from the heat flux across the surface of direct contact with the nuclear matter. As the thermal conductivity of the neighboring layer is also high, the whole interior of the star should be nearly isothermal. Our results imply that the cooling time of compact stars with color-flavor locked quark cores is similar to that of ordinary neutron stars.

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arXiv2000

Dynamical Evolution of the Scalar Condensate in Heavy Ion Collisions

We derive the effective coarse-grained field equation for the scalar condensate of the linear sigma model in a simple and straightforward manner using linear response theory. The dissipative coefficient is calculated at tree level on the basis of the physical processes of sigma-meson decay and of thermal sigma-mesons and pions knocking sigma-mesons out of the condensate. The field equation is solved for hot matter undergoing either one or three dimensional expansion and cooling in the aftermath of a high energy nuclear collision. The results show that the time constant for returning the scalar condensate to thermal equilibrium is of order 2 fm/c.

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arXiv1998

Pion--Nucleon Scattering in a New Approach to Chiral Perturbation Theory

We study pion--nucleon scattering with a chiral lagrangian of pions, nucleons, and $Δ$-isobars. The scattering amplitude is evaluated to one-loop $Q^3$ order, where $Q$ is a generic small momentum, using a new approach which is equivalent to heavy baryon chiral perturbation theory. We obtain a good fit to the experimental phase shifts for pion center-of-mass kinetic energies up to 100 MeV. A sigma term greater than 45 MeV is favored, but the value is not well determined.

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arXiv1998

Multiple Scattering Expansion of the Self-Energy at Finite Temperature

An often used rule that the thermal correction to the self-energy is the thermal phase-space times the forward scattering amplitude from target particles is shown to be the leading term in an exact multiple scattering expansion. Starting from imaginary-time finite-temperature field theory, a rigorous expansion for the retarded self-energy is derived. The relationship to the thermodynamic potential is briefly discussed.

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arXiv1997

Pion-Nucleon Scattering at Low Energies

We study pion-nucleon scattering at tree level with a chiral lagrangian of pions, nucleons, and $Δ$-isobars using a K-matrix unitarization procedure. Evaluating the scattering amplitude to order $Q^2$, where $Q$ is a generic small momentum scale, we obtain a good fit to the experimental phase shifts for pion center-of-mass kinetic energies up to $50 $MeV. The fit can be extended to 150 MeV when we include the order-$Q^3$ contributions. Our results are independent of the off-shell $Δ$ parameter.

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arXiv1996

Kaon Zero-Point Fluctuations in Neutron Star Matter

We investigate the contribution of zero-point motion, arising from fluctuations in kaon modes, to the ground state properties of neutron star matter containing a Bose condensate of kaons. The zero-point energy is derived via the thermodynamic partition function, by integrating out fluctuations for an arbitrary value of the condensate field. It is shown that the vacuum counterterms of the chiral Lagrangian ensure the cancellation of divergences dependent on $μ$, the charge chemical potential, which may be regarded as an external vector potential. The total grand potential, consisting of the tree-level potential, the zero-point contribution, and the counterterm potential, is extremized to yield a locally charge neutral, beta-equilibrated and minimum energy ground state. In some regions of parameter space we encounter the well-known problem of a complex effective potential. Where the potential is real and solutions can be obtained, the contributions from fluctuations are found to be small in comparison with tree-level contributions.

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arXiv1996

Redundance of $Δ$-isobar Parameters in Effective Field Theories

It is shown that the off-shell parameters in the interaction Lagrangian of pions, nucleons, and $Δ$-isobars are redundant in the framework of effective field theories. Our results also suggest the necessity of including the $Δ$ as an explicit dynamical degree of freedom.

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arXiv1996

Strangeness and Metastable Neutron Stars: What Might have Happened to SN1987A

Immediately after they are born, neutron stars are characterized by an entropy per baryon of order unity and by the presence of trapped neutrinos. If the only hadrons in the star are nucleons, these effects slightly reduce the maximum mass relative to cold, catalyzed matter. However, if negatively charged particles in the form of hyperons, a kaon condensate, or quarks are also present, these effects result in an increase in the maximum mass of $\sim 0.2{\rm M}_{\odot}$ compared to that of a cold, neutrino-free star. This could lead to the delayed formation of a black hole; such a scenario is consistent with our present knowledge of SN1987A.

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arXiv1996

Composition and Structure of Protoneutron Stars

We investigate the structure of neutron stars shortly after they are born, when the entropy per baryon is of order 1 or 2 and neutrinos are trapped on dynamical timescales. In all cases, the thermal effects for an entropy per baryon of order 2 or less are small when considering the maximum neutron star mass. Neutrino trapping, however, significantly changes the maximum mass due to the abundance of electrons. When matter is allowed to contain only nucleons and leptons, trapping decreases the maximum mass by an amount comparable to, but somewhat larger than, the increase due to finite entropy. When matter is allowed to contain strongly interacting negatively charged particles, in the form of strange baryons, a kaon condensate, or quarks, trapping instead results in an increase in the maximum mass of order $0.2M_\odot$, which adds to the effects of finite entropy. The presence of negatively-charged particles has two major implications. First, the value of the maximum mass will decrease during the early evolution of a neutron star as it loses trapped neutrinos, so that if a black hole forms, it either does so immediately after the bounce or it is delayed for a neutrino diffusion timescale of $\sim 10$ s. The latter case is most likely if the maximum mass of the hot star with trapped neutrinos is near $1.5M_\odot$. In the absence of negatively-charged hadrons, black hole formation would be due to accretion and therefore is likely to occur only immediately after bounce. Second, the appearance of hadronic negative charges results in a general softening of the equation of state that may be observable in the neutrino luminosities and average energies. Further, these additional negative charges decrease the electron fraction and may be observed in the relative excess of electron neutrinos compared to other neutrinos.

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arXiv1995

Kaon Condensation in Neutron Star Matter with Hyperons

Based on the Kaplan-Nelson Lagrangian, we investigate kaon condensation in dense neutron star matter allowing for the explicit presence of hyperons. Using various models we find that the condensate threshold is sensitive to the behavior of the scalar density; the more rapidly it increases with baryon density, the lower is the threshold for condensation. The presence of hyperons, particularly the $Σ^-$, shifts the threshold for $K^-$ condensation to a higher density. In the mean field approach, with hyperons, the condensate amplitude grows sufficiently rapidly that the nucleon effective mass vanishes at a finite density and a satisfactory treatment of the thermodynamics cannot be achieved. Thus, calculations of kaon-baryon interactions beyond the mean field level appear to be necessary.

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