Solitons in relativistic mean field models

Abstract

Assuming that the nucleus can be treated as a perfect fluid we study the conditions for the formation and propagation of Korteweg-de Vries (KdV) solitons in nuclear matter. The KdV equation is obtained from the Euler and continuity equations in nonrelativistic hydrodynamics. The existence of these solitons depends on the nuclear equation of state, which, in our approach, comes from well known relativistic mean field models. We reexamine early works on nuclear solitons, replacing the old equations of state by new ones, based on QHD and on its variants. Our analysis suggests that KdV solitons may indeed be formed in the nucleus with a width which, in some cases, can be smaller than one fermi.