How tightly is the nuclear symmetry energy constrained by a unitary Fermi gas?

摘要

We examine critically how tightly the density dependence of nuclear symmetry energy E_(sym)(q) is constrained by the universal equation of state of the unitary Fermi gas EUG(q) considering currently known uncertainties of higher order parameters describing the density dependence of the equation of state of isospin asymmetric nuclear matter. We found that E_(UG)(q) does provide a useful lower boundary for the E_(sym)(q). However, it doesnot tightly constrain the correlation between the magnitude E_(sym)(q_0) and slope L unless the curvature K_(sym)of the symmetry energy at saturation density q_0 is more precisely known. The large uncertainty in the skewness parameters affects the E_(sym)(q_0) versus L correlation by the same almost as significantly as the uncertainty in K_(sym).