Properties of isospin asymmetric matter derived from chiral effective field theory

Abstract

We present and discuss properties of isospin asymmetric matter whose equation of state is derived from recent high-quality chiral nucleon-nucleon potentials and chiral effective three-nucleon forces. After a brief review of the chiral few-nucleon forces which we adopt, we concentrate on the symmetry energy and its density derivatives. We also explore the correlation between the symmetry energy at saturation density and its slope parameter, L. We estimate the truncation error across three orders of the chiral expansion for both the symmetry energy as a function of density and the slope parameter. Through an energy-density functional inspired by the liquid drop model, we establish a simple connection to finite nuclei. Specifically, we address the symmetry energy coefficient, the so-called reference (or equivalent) density, as well as the neutron skin thickness for 208Pb and 48Ca.