Constraint on nuclear symmetry energy from nuclear charge dependent neutron skin thickness of nuclei

Abstract

An alternative way to constrain the density dependence of the symmetry energy with the slope of the neutron skin thickness of nuclei which shows a linear relation to both the isospin asymmetry and the nuclear charge with a form of Z^{2/3} is proposed. The linear dependence of the neutron skin thickness on the nuclear charge and isospin asymmetry is systematically studied with the data from antiprotonic atom measurement experimentally and the extended Thomas-Fermi approach incorporated the Skyrme energy density functional theoretically. An obviously linear relationship between the slope parameter L of the symmetry energy and the slope of the neutron skin thickness on the isospin asymmetry can be found by adopting 66 Skyrme interactions in the calculation. Combining the available experimental data, the constraint of 16<L<66 MeV on the slope parameter of the symmetry energy is obtained. The Skyrme interactions satisfying the constraint are selected.