[Prex] Constraints on the Symmetry Energy from PREX-II in the Multimessenger Era

[Jay Benesch]

https://arxiv.org/abs/2102.05267

Constraints on the Symmetry Energy from PREX-II in the Multimessenger Era
Tong-Gang Yue, Lie-Wen Chen, Zhen Zhang, Ying Zhou

    The neutron skin thickness Δrnp of heavy nuclei is essentially determined by the symmetry energy density slope L(ρ) at ρc=0.11/0.16ρ0 (ρ0 is nuclear saturation density), roughly corresponding to the average density of finite nuclei. The PREX collaboration recently reported a model-independent extraction of Δr208np=0.29±0.07 fm for the Δrnp of 208Pb, which suggests a rather stiff symmetry energy Esym(ρ) with L(ρc)≥55 MeV. We demonstrate that the Esym(ρ) cannot be too stiff and L(ρc)≤73 MeV is necessary to be compatible with (1) the ground-state properties and giant monopole resonances of finite nuclei, (2) the constraints on the equation of state of symmetric nuclear matter at suprasaturation densities from flow data in heavy-ion collisions, (3) the largest neutron star (NS) mass reported so far for PSR J0740+6620, (4) the NS tidal deformability extracted from gravitational wave signal GW170817 and (5) the mass-radius of PSR J0030+045 measured simultaneously by NICER. This allow us to obtain 55≤L(ρc)≤73 MeV and 0.22≤Δr208np≤0.27 fm, and further Esym(ρ0)=34.5±1.5 MeV, L(ρ0)=85.5±22.2 MeV, and Esym(2ρ0)=63.9±14.8 MeV. A number of critical implications on nuclear physics and astrophysics are discussed. 

Comments: 	5 pages, 4 figures
Subjects: 	Nuclear Theory (nucl-th); High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE); High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph); Nuclear Experiment (nucl-ex)
Cite as: 	arXiv:2102.05267 [nucl-th]