Asymmetric nuclear matter in a Hartree-Fock approach to non-linear QHD

Abstract

The Equation of State (EOS) for asymmetric nuclear matter is discussed starting from a phenomenological hadronic field theory of Serot-Walecka type including exchange terms. In a model with self interactions of the scalar sigma-meson we show that the Fock terms naturally lead to isospin effects in the nuclear EOS. These effects are quite large and dominate over the contribution due to isovector mesons. We obtain a potential symmetry term of "stiff" type, i.e. increasing with baryon density and an interesting behaviour of neutron/proton effective masses of relevance for transport properties of asymmetric dense matter.