Investigating Effects of Relativistic Kinematics, Dimensionality, Interactions, and Short-Range Correlations on the Ratio of Quartic over Quadratic Nuclear Symmetry Energies

Abstract

While ample evidence for the so-called empirical parabolic law of the Equation of State (EOS) of isospin asymmetric nuclear matter (ANM) has been obtained in many studies within both non-relativistic and relativistic nuclear many-body theories using various interactions, it has been unclear if there is any fundamental physics reason for the small quartic symmetry energy compared to the quadratic one even as the ANM approaches pure neutron matter. Within both relativistic and non-relativistic Free Fermi Gas (FFG) models in coordinate spaces of arbitrary dimension $d$ with and without considering Short-Range Correlations (SRC) as well as non-linear Relativistic Mean Field (RMF) models, we study effects of relativistic kinematics, dimensionality, interactions and SRC on the ratio $Ψ(ρ)$ of quartic over quadratic symmetry energies in ANM EOSs. We found that the ratio $Ψ(ρ)$ in the FFG model depends strongly on the dimension $d$. While it is very small already in the normal 3D space, it could be even smaller in spaces with reduced dimensions for sub-systems of particles in heavy-ion reactions and/or whole neutron stars due to constraints, collectivities and/or symmetries. We also found that the ratio $Ψ(ρ)$ could theoretically become very large only at the ultra-relativistic limit far above the density reachable in neutron stars. On the other hand, nuclear interaction directly and/or indirectly through SRC-induced high-momentum nucleons affect significantly the density dependence of $Ψ(ρ)$ compared to the relativistic FFG model prediction. The SRC affects significantly not only the kinetic energy of symmetric nuclear matter but also the ratio $Ψ(ρ)$ while the relativistic corrections are found negligible. The results may help better understand the EOS of dense neutron-rich matter.