New quantification of symmetry energy from neutron skin thicknesses of 48Ca and 208Pb
Abstract
Precise knowledge of the nuclear symmetry energy can be tentatively calibrated through multimessenger constraints. The neutron skin thickness of a heavy nucleus is one of the most sensitive indicators for probing the isovector components of effective interactions in asymmetric nuclear matter. Recent studies have suggested that the experimental data from the CREX and PREX2 Collaborations are not mutually compatible within existing nuclear models. In this study, we review the quantification of the slope parameter of symmetry energy from the neutron skin thicknesses of 48Ca and 208Pb. Skyrme energy density functionals classified by various isoscalar incompressibility coefficients are employed to evaluate the bulk properties of finite nuclei. The calculated results suggest that the slope parameter deduced from 208Pb is sensitive to the compression modulus of symmetric nuclear matter, but not that from 48Ca. The effective parameter sets classified by MeV can provide an almost overlaping range of from 48Ca and 208Pb.
I Introduction
Nuclear symmetry energy (NSE), which characterizes the energy cost of converting isospin symmetric nuclear matter (SNM) into pure neutron matter (PNM), plays a vital role in determining the properties of finite nuclei and neutron stars PhysRevLett.86.5647 ; Li2019 ; Steiner:2004fi ; LATTIMER2007109 ; Xiachengjun . The density dependence of the NSE, that is, , can be expanded around the saturation density ( fm-3). The slope parameter dominates the behavior of the equation of state (EoS) for asymmetric nuclear matter in the vicinity of . Precise knowledge about the density dependence of the NSE is difficult to obtain owing to the uncertainties arising from the varying model-dependent slope parameter . Fortunately, the characteristic behaviors of the NSE can be extracted indirectly from both extensive terrestrial nuclear experiments and observed astrophysical events Li:2008gp ; Li:2014oda ; Hu:2020ujf ; PhysRevC.90.064317 ; PhysRevC.101.034303 ; Liu_2018 ; PhysRevC.108.L021303 .
Nuclear symmetry energy has been extensively used to encode the implications of the degree of isospin-asymmetry in finite nuclei. This is especially useful in the formation of the neutron skin thickness (NST) or neutron halo structure PhysRevLett.77.3963 ; PhysRevC.82.011301 ; PhysRevC.102.044313 . The quantity of NST , which is defined as the difference between the root-mean-square (rms) radii of the neutrons and protons in a heavy nucleus and is strongly correlated to the slope parameter of the NSE, Brown20005296 ; PhysRevC.64.027302 ; PhysRevC.69.024318 ; PhysRevC.72.064309 ; PhysRevLett.106.252501 ; PhysRevC.80.024316 ; PhysRevC.84.034316 ; PhysRevLett.102.122502 ; PhysRevC.81.051303 ; PhysRevLett.109.262501 ; PhysRevC.87.051306 ; PhysRevC.87.034327 ; PhysRevC.93.051303 ; ZHANG2013234 ; PhysRevC.102.044316 ; particles6010003 ; PhysRevC.91.034315 ; PhysRevC.90.064310 ; chen2006 ; PhysRevC.97.034318 . Therefore, the NST of a heavy nucleus was undertaken to provide a constraint on the EoS of neutron-rich matter around .
The neutron radius of 208Pb has been determined in a laboratory by measuring the parity violating asymmetry in polarized elastic electron scattering experiments such as PREX2 PhysRevLett.126.172502 . These efforts provided the latest value of NST with significantly improved precision: fm. Moreover, a precise measurement of the NST for 48Ca was updated by the CREX group: fm PhysRevLett.129.042501 . The reported NST of 48Ca is relatively thin compared to the measurement obtained by the high-resolution electric polarizability experiment () in the RCNP collaboration ( fm) PhysRevLett.118.252501 . In contrast, the NST of obtained by the PREX2 Collaboration is larger than that measured by RCNP ( fm) PhysRevLett.107.062502 . In Ref. PhysRevLett.127.192701 , the neutron skin thickness of 208Pb obtained by constraining the astrophysical observables favors smaller value; for example, fm. Likewise, the optimized new functionals obtained by calibrating the and values of 208Pb predict an NST of fm and the symmetry-energy slope MeV PhysRevLett.127.232501 . Recently theoretical studies have suggested that neutron star masses and radii are more sensitive to the NST of 208Pb than its dipole polarizability PhysRevC.107.035802 . These results challenge our understanding of nuclear force and energy density functionals (EDFs).
In Ref. TAGAMI2022106037 , 207 EoSs were employed to explore the systematic correlations between and (CREX) and between and (PREX2). The slope parameter of the NSE obtained by fitting covers the interval range MeV; however, the calibrated correlation between the slope parameter and yields (PREX2) MeV. As mentioned in the literature, there is no overlap between (CREX) and (PREX2) at the one- level. A combined analysis was also performed using a recent experimental determination of the parity violating asymmetry in 48Ca and 208Pb PhysRevLett.129.232501 . The study demonstrated that the existing nuclear EDFs cannot simultaneously offer an accurate description of the skins of 48Ca and 208Pb. The same scenario can also be encountered in Bayesian analysis, where the predicted is closed to the CREX result, but considerably underestimates the result of with respect to the PREX2 measurement Zhang:2022bni . Considering the isoscalar-isovector couplings in relativistic EDFs, the constraints from various high-density data cannot reconcile the recent results from PREX2 and CREX Collaboration measurements Miyatsu:2023lki . These investigations indicate that it is difficult to provide consistent constraints for the isovector components of the EoSs using existing nuclear EDFs, and further theoretical and experimental studies are urgently required YUKSEL2023137622 .
To reduce the discrepancies between the different measurements and observations, an extra term controlling the dominant gradient correction to the local functional in the isoscalar sector has been used to weaken the correlations between the properties of finite nuclei and the nuclear EoS PhysRevC.107.015801 . As demonstrated in Ref. PhysRevC.96.065805 , the influence of the isoscalar sector is nonnegligible in the analysis. Nuclear matter properties expressed in terms of their isoscalar and isovector counterparts are correlated PhysRevC.73.044320 . As noticed above, existing discussions focus on the isovector components in the EDFs model. Characteristic isoscalar quantities, such as the incompressibility of symmetric nuclear matter, are less considered when determining the slope parameter TAGAMI2022106037 . The nuclear incompressibility can be deduced from measurements of the isoscalar giant monopole resonance (ISGMR) in medium-heavy nuclei PhysRevC.70.024307 ; PhysRevC.86.054313 and multi-fragmentations of heavy ion collisions PhysRevC.70.041604 . The NSE obtained through the effective Skyrme-EDF is related to the isoscalar and isovector effective masses, which are also indirectly related to the incompressibility of symmetric nuclear matter PhysRevC.73.014313 . Although correlations between the incompressibility coefficients and isovector parameters are generally weaker than correlations between the slope parameter and NSE PhysRevC.104.054324 , quantification uncertainty due to nuclear matter incompressibility is inevitable in the evaluation. Therefore, the influence of the isoscalar nuclear matter properties is essential for evaluating slope parameter .
II Theoretical framework
The sophisticated Skyrme-EDF, expressed as an effective zero-range force between nucleons with density- and momentum-dependent terms, has been succeeded in describing various physical phenomena RevModPhys.75.121 ; PhysRevC.95.014316 ; PhysRevC.102.054312 ; PhysRevC.90.024317 ; PhysRevC.102.014312 ; WU2022136886 ; Caotens11 ; Wenpw14 ; PhysRevC.87.064311 ; Caoquench . In this study, Skyrme-like effective interactions were calculated as follows CHABANAT1997710 ; CHABANAT1998231 :
(1) | |||||
where and are related to the positions of two nucleons and , is the relative momentum operator and is its complex conjugate acting on the left, and is the spin exchange operator that controls the relative strength of the and channels for a given term in the two-body interactions, where are the Pauli matrices. The final term denotes the spin-orbit force, where . Quantities , and (-3) represent the effective interaction parameters of the Skyrme forces.
Generally, effective interaction parameter sets are calibrated by matching the properties of finite nuclei and nuclear matter at the saturation density. Notably,the Skyrme-EDF can provide an analytical expression of all variables characterizing infinite nuclear matter (see CHABANAT1997710 ; CHABANAT1998231 ; PhysRevC.85.035201 ; PhysRevC.82.024321 for details). The neutron skin of a heavy nucleus is regarded as the feasible indicator for probing the isovector interactions in the EoS of asymmetric nuclear matter. Thus, the neutron and proton density distributions can be self-consistently calculated using Skyrme DEFs with various parameter sets. To clarify this, we further inspected the correlations between the slope parameter and the NSTs of 48Ca and 208Pb. The bulk properties were calculated using the standard Skyrme-type EDFs PhysRevC.70.024307 . The corresponding effective interactions were in accord with the calculated nuclear matter properties, such as binding energy per nucleon , symmetry energy , slope parameter , and the incompressibility coefficient . The value of the isoscalar incompressibility from experimental data on giant monopole resonances covers a range of MeV PhysRevLett.82.691 ; PhysRevC.69.051301 . In addition, the incompressibility of symmetric nuclear matter deduced from -decay properties is MeV PhysRevC.74.034302 .
(MeV) | Sets | (MeV) | (MeV) |
---|---|---|---|
s2028 | 28 | 5.21 | |
s2030 | 30 | 12.20 | |
s2032 | 32 | 33.31 | |
=220 | s2034 | 34 | 40.37 |
s2036 | 36 | 58.82 | |
s2038 | 38 | 72.59 | |
s2040 | 40 | 83.22 | |
s3028 | 28 | 11.23 | |
s3030 | 30 | 22.87 | |
s3032 | 32 | 36.22 | |
=230 | s3034 | 34 | 56.14 |
s3036 | 36 | 71.54 | |
s3038 | 38 | 87.62 | |
s3040 | 40 | 106.09 | |
s4028 | 28 | 3.98 | |
s4030 | 30 | 34.07 | |
s4032 | 32 | 34.43 | |
=240 | s4034 | 34 | 62.59 |
s4036 | 36 | 75.67 | |
s4038 | 38 | 98.65 | |
s4040 | 40 | 108.17 |
The nuclear breathing model exhibits a moderate correlation with the slope of the NSE and a strong dependence on the isoscalar incompressibility coefficient of the symmetric nuclear matter Chen_2012 . The incompressibility of nuclear matter helps us understand the properties of neutron stars PhysRevC.94.052801 ; PhysRevC.104.055804 . Thus, it is essential to inspect the influence of isoscalar components on the slope parameter of the symmetry energy. To facilitate a quantitative discussion, a series of effective interaction sets classified by various nuclear incompressibility coefficients ( MeV, 230 MeV, and 240 MeV)were employed, as shown in Table 1. Generally, analytical expressions at the saturation density have specific forms PhysRevC.85.035201 . Using these expressions, the density dependence of the symmetry energy can be expanded as a function of neutron excess. Under the corresponding , the slope parameter and symmetry energy at the saturation density also cover a large range.
III Results and Discussions
In Fig. 1, the NSTs of 48Ca and 208Pb are determined under various effective interactions. The chosen parameter sets are classified by different incompressibility coefficients of symmetric nuclear matter, for example, MeV, MeV and MeV. The experimental constraint on the NST is indicated by a colored shadow. With increasing slope parameter , the NST is increased monotonically, and strong linear correlations between and the NST of 48Ca and 208Pb are observed. As shown in Fig. 1 (a), the linear correlations are almost similar, and the gradients for these three lines are in the ranges of .

Figure 1 (b) shows the related linear correlations between (208Pb) and the slope parameters for various nuclear matter incompressibility coefficients. However, with increasing incompressibility coefficient, the slopes of the fitted lines gradually decrease or a large deviation emerges at a high . The nuclear matter EoS is conventionally defined as the binding energy per nucleon and can be expressed as Taylor-series expansion in terms of the isospin asymmetry. As suggested in Refs. PhysRevC.69.041301 ; Chen_2012 , the compression modulus of symmetric nuclear matter is sensitive to the density dependence of the NSE. With increasing neutron star mass, the correlation between and its slope increases PhysRevC.104.055804 . From this figure, we can see that the isoscalar quantity of the incompressibility coefficient has a significant influence on the determination of the slope parameter in 208Pb. However, for 48Ca this influence can be ignored.
Herein, we assume that the value of is positive. Linear functions were fitted to the data classified by various nuclear matter incompressibility coefficients using the least-squares method. For MeV, we obtained the relation as
(2) |
For , the linear function MeV is expressed as
(3) |
where a high correlation coefficient is located at .
As suggested in Ref. TAGAMI2022106037 , the slope parameter ( MeV) deduced from cannot overlap the interval range of the slope parameter ( MeV) deduced from . To facilitate a quantitative comparison of the experiments with these theoretical calculations, the slope parameter derived from the constraints of the NSTs of 48Ca and 208Pb are presented for various nuclear matter incompressibility coefficients in Table 2. Remarkably, the gaps between and increase with increasing incompressibility coefficients from MeV to 240 MeV.
(MeV) | (MeV) | (MeV) |
---|---|---|
220 | (3.08) | (1.70) |
230 | (2.87) | (1.64) |
240 | (2.54) | (1.33) |
Nuclear matter properties consisting of isovector and isoscalar components are correlated with each other. Ref. PhysRevC.73.044320 suggests that there is no clear correlation between the incompressibility and NSE, and between the slope of the NSE and incompressibility . The correlations between and the isovector parameters are generally weaker than those between the NST and NSE coefficients PhysRevC.69.024318 ; PhysRevC.104.054324 . As seen in Fig. 1 (b), the increasing incompressibility coefficient influences the determination of the covered range of the slope parameter . Table 2 shows that the gap between and is smaller than the theoretical uncertainty when the nuclear incompressibility is MeV. This is instructive for calibrating new sets of Skyrme parameters for reproducing various nuclear matter properties as auxiliary conditions.

To facilitate the influence of incompressibility coefficient on determining the slope parameter , the “data-to-data” relations between the NST of 208Pb and the incompressibility coefficients are presented in Fig. 2. Here, the slope parameters of the NSE were chosen to be approximately MeV and MeV. From this figure, in can be seen that the NST of 208Pb decreases with increasing incompressibility coefficient. This further demonstrates that the isoscalar compression modulus should be appropriately considered in the calibration protocol.
In our calculations, the upper limits of are gradually overestimated as the increasing incompressibility coefficients increased. Combined with the latest PREX2 experiment, the result extracted from the relativistic EDFs leads to a covered range of MeV PhysRevLett.126.172503 . The induced slope parameter is more consistent with that obtained when the incompressibility coefficient is MeV.
In Refs. PhysRevC.88.011301 ; PhysRevLett.119.122502 ; PhysRevResearch.2.022035 , the highly linear correlation between the slope parameter and the differences of charge radii of mirror-partner nuclei was demonstrated. The nuclear charge radius of 54Ni has been determined using the collinear laser spectroscopy PhysRevLett.127.182503 . By combining the charge radii of the mirror-pair nuclei 54Fe, the deduced slope parameter covers the interval range MeV. A recent study suggested that the upper or lower limits of may be constrained if precise data on the mirror charge radii of 44Cr-44Ca and 46Fe-46Ca are selected PhysRevC.107.034319 . In all of these studies, isoscalar nuclear matter properties were not considered. In fact, the value deduced from the relativistic and non-relativistic Skyrme EDFs with identical incompressibility coefficients MeV gives a narrow range of MeV An:2023ahu . This is in agreement with the results in Ref. Konig:2023rwe where a soft EoS is obtained, for example, MeV.
In atomic nuclei, the NST is regarded as a perfect signal for describing the isovector property, and is highly correlated with the slope parameter of the NSE. The difference in the charge radii of the mirror-pair nuclei and the slope of the NSE exhibits a highly linear relationship PhysRevC.97.014314 ; PhysRevLett.130.032501 ; PhysRevC.108.015802 . To facilitate the influence of the isoscalar properties on determining the EoS of nuclear matter, the data-to-data relations between the difference in charge radii of the mirror-pair nuclei 54Ni-54Fe and the NSTs of 48Ca and 208Pb are shown in Fig. 3. Notably, highly linear correlations between and the NSTs of 48Ca and 208Pb are observed.

In Fig. 3 (a), the linear functions fit the experimental data well across various incompressibility coefficients , that is, the slope parameter can be constrained concurrently through the calculated NST of 48Ca and the of mirror-pair nuclei 54Ni-54Fe. However, as shown in Fig. 3 (b), the fitting lines deviate from the cross-over region between and the NST of 208Pb except for MeV. Although the linear function captures a relatively narrow region, this further demonstrates the need to extract valid information about the nuclear EoS by considering the isoscalar components in the calibration procedure.
The Coulomb term does not contribute to infinite nuclear matter calculations, in which the NSE plays an essential role in determining the evolution of isospin asymmetry components. However, in atomic nuclei, the actual proton and neutron density distributions are mostly dominated by the degree of isospin asymmetry and Coulomb forces. It is evident that the competition between the Coulomb interaction and the NSE is related to the stability of dripline nuclei against nucleon emission RocaMaza:2018ujj ; PhysRevC.82.027301 . The NST is associated with the symmetry energy and significantly influenced by the NSE, which corresponds to the EoS of neutron-rich matter. Meanwhile, a strong high liner correlation between the slope parameter and the difference in the charge radii of mirror-pair nuclei is evident PhysRevC.88.011301 ; PhysRevLett.119.122502 ; PhysRevResearch.2.022035 ; PhysRevLett.127.182503 ; PhysRevC.107.034319 ; An:2023ahu . As shown in Fig. 3, this highly linear correlation extends to the NST and the difference in charge radii of mirror-pair nuclei, owing to the isospin-symmetry breaking PhysRevC.108.015802 .
IV Summary and outlook
As is well known, the Skyrme parameters can be characterized analytically by the isoscalar and isovector nuclear matter properties of the Hamiltonian density. More effective statistical methods have also been used to discuss the theoretical uncertainties PhysRevC.93.051303 ; Balliet_2021 ; PhysRevC.105.L021301 . In this study, we reviewed the influence of nuclear matter incompressibility on the determination of the slope parameter of symmetry energy . The NSTs of 48Ca and 208Pb were calculated using Skyrme EDFs. The slope parameter deduced from 208Pb is sensitive to the incompressibility coefficients, whereas that for 48Ca is not. A continuous range of can be obtained if the nuclear matter is incompressible at MeV. This is in agreement with that in Ref. PhysRevC.104.054324 where the nuclear matter incompressibility covers the interval range of MeV. This implies that the isoscalar components should be considered when determining the slope parameter . In addition, it is desirable to review the influence of the incompressibility coefficient on the determination of the slope parameter within the framework of relativistic EDFs.
The nuclear symmetry energy can be obtained using different methods and models Giuliani2023 ; FURNSTAHL200285 ; PhysRevC.93.064303 ; GAIDAROV2020122061 ; Cheng_2023 ; Caoantigdr ; Caoantigdr1 ; Cao08 ; Cao041 ; LiuMin2011 ; Fangdeqing ; GAUTAM2024122832 ; fang2023 ; Gao2023 ; Xu_2021 ; He2023 . The precise determination of the slope parameter is related to various quantities such as the charge changing cross section XU2022137333 ; ZHAO2023138269 , sub-barrier fusion cross-section, and astrophysical -factor in asymmetric nuclei ghosh2023neutron . Generally, the proton and neutron density distributions are mutually determined by the isospin asymmetry and Coulomb force. The isospin symmetry breaking effect influences the determination of the charge density distributions DONG2019133 ; PhysRevC.105.L021304 ; PhysRevC.107.064302 ; SENG2023137654 . Thus, more accurate descriptions of NST and charge radii are required. In addition, the curvature of the symmetry energy PhysRevC.69.041301 and three-body interactions in the Skyrme forces PhysRevC.94.064326 may also influence the determination of the neutron skin.
V Acknowledgements
This work is supported partly by the National Key RD Program of China under Grant No. 2023YFA1606401 and the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grants No. 12135004, No. 11635003, No. 11961141004 and No. 12047513. L.-G. C. is grateful for the support of the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grants No. 12275025, No. 11975096 and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (2020NTST06)¡£
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