Clustering in dilute matter and equation of state

Abstract

The chemical composition and thermodynamic properties of strongly interacting matter are strongly affected by cluster correlations at subsaturation densities. A generalized relativistic density functional approach, which includes clusters as explicit degrees of freedom with medium dependent properties, is able to describe the formation and dissolution of clusters. Adapting the density functional for the equation of state to nuclear structure calculations, the occurence of α-particle clusters on the surface of heavy nuclei is predicted, which reduces the neutron skin thickness of neutron-rich heavy nuclei and affects the correlation between the neutron skin thicknes and the density dependence of the symmetry energy.