An extended thomas-fermi model with clustering in Nuclei

In this study, a phenomenological theory of nuclei that includes clustering at the nuclear surface in a general form is presented. The theory elaborates the recently extracted large symmetry energy by Natowitz et al., at low densities of nuclear matter and is fully consistent with the static properties of nuclei. Clusters of all sizes and shapes together with medium alterations are included in a phenomenological way. Discussion about the symmetric nuclear matter properties are presented in detail. Arguments are stated, which bring to an equation of state of nuclear matter consistent with clustering in the low-density region. In addition, the justification and discussion about the properties of asymmetric nuclear matter are given. Due to the clustering, an interesting interpretation of the equation of state of asymmetric nuclear matter comes into view. An extended version of Thomas-Fermi theory is adopted as a framework for nuclei where it also consist of the phenomenological pairing and Wigner contributions. This theory relates the nuclear matter equation of state, which includes clustering at low densities, with clustering in nuclei at the nuclear surface. Calculations are carried out for different equations of state of nuclear matter. This study take into account binding energies of 2149 nuclei for N,Z  8. The significance of the quartic term in symmetry energy is illustrated at and below the saturation density of nuclear matter. It is demonstrated that it is greatly connected to the use of ab initio, a realistic equation of state of neutron matter, especially the contribution originating from the three neutron interactions and rather clustering. The causes for these are presented. The neutron skin thickness in nuclei is found to reduce significantly, for the reason of clustering. The developed theory predicts circumstances and methodologies to be examine both theoretically and experimentally.