Nuclear equation of state for core-collapse supernova simulations with realistic nuclear forces

Understand

A new table of the nuclear equation of state (EOS) based on realistic nuclear potentials is constructed for core-collapse supernova numerical simulations.

• Adopting the EOS of uniform nuclear matter constructed by two of the present authors with the cluster variational method starting from the Argonne v18 and Urbana IX nuclear potentials, the Thomas-Fermi calculation is performed to obtain the minimized free energy of a Wigner-Seitz cell in non-uniform nuclear matter.
• As a preparation for the Thomas-Fermi calculation, the EOS of uniform nuclear matter is modified so as to remove the effects of deuteron cluster formation in uniform matter at low densities.
• Mixing of alpha particles is also taken into account following the procedure used by Shen et al.