Theoretical understanding of the nuclear incompressibility: where do we stand?

✍ Scribed by G. Colo`; Nguyen Van Giai

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2004
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 813 KB
• Volume: 731
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0375-9474
• DOI: 10.1016/j.nuclphysa.2003.11.014

✦ Synopsis

The status of the theoretical research on the compressional modes of finite nuclei and the incompressibility Km of nuclear matter, is reviewed. It is argued that the recent experimental data on the Isoscalar Giant Monopole Resonance (ISGMR) allow extracting the value of Km with an uncertainity of about + 12 MeV. Non-relativistic (Skyrme, Gogny) and relativistic mean field models predict for Km values which are significantly different from one another, namely E 220-235 and M 250-270 MeV respectively.

It is shown that the solution of this puzzle requires a better determination of the symmetry energy at, and around, saturation.

The role played by the experimental data of the Isoscalar Giant Dipole Resonance (ISGDR) is also discussed.