PROJECT TITLE

Bubble Structure of Exotic Nuclei within Relativistic mean

field Approach

NAME
SADMAN ZARIF HOSSAIN
MATRIX NUMBER

17108778/1 (NEW)
SIF180704 (OLD)

PHYSICS DEPARTMENT, FACULTY OF SCIENCE

UNIVERSITY OF MALAYA
KUALA LUMPUR

FINAL YEAR PROJECT

SESSION 2019/2020
SIF3004
 NAME

SADMAN ZARIF HOSSAIN

MATRIX NUMBER

17108778/1 (NEW)

SIF180704 (OLD)

FINAL YEAR THESIS SUBMITTED IN FULFILMENT

OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF
SCIENCE IN PHYSICS

PHYSICS DEPARTMENT, FACULTY OF SCIENCE

UNIVERSITY OF MALAYA
KUALA LUMPUR

SESSION 2019 / 2020

 UNIVERSITY OF MALAYA
ORIGINAL LITERARY WORK DECLARATION

Name of Candidate: Sadman Zarif Hossain

(I.C/Passport No: ) EA0201699
Matric No: 17108778/1
Name of Degree: Bachelor of Science (Physics)
Title of Project Paper: Bubble Structure of Exotic Nuclei within Relativistic mean
field Approach
Field of Study: Nuclear Physics

I do solemnly and sincerely declare that:

(1) I am the sole author/writer of this Work;
(2) This Work is original;
(3) Any use of any work in which copyright exists was done by way of fair
dealing and for permitted purposes and any excerpt or extract from, or
reference to or reproduction of any copyright work has been disclosed
expressly and sufficiently and the title of the Work and its authorship have
been acknowledged in this Work;
(4) I do not have any actual knowledge nor do I ought reasonably to know that
the making of this work constitutes an infringement of any copyright work;
(5) I hereby assign all and every rights in the copyright to this Work to the
University of Malaya (“UM”), who henceforth shall be owner of the
copyright in this Work and that any reproduction or use in any form or by any
means whatsoever is prohibited without the written consent of UM having
been first had and obtained;
(6) I am fully aware that if in the course of making this Work I have infringed
any copyright whether intentionally or otherwise, I may be subject to legal
action or any other action as may be determined by UM.

Candidate’s Signature Date:

Subscribed and solemnly declared before,

Witness’s Signature Date:

Name:
Designation:

ii
 ABSTRACT

A structured research has been conducted on the depletion of the central density

of nucleons in isotonic chains of nuclei. The study was conducted using various

models of the relativistic mean-field (RMF). The models were for various interactions

of mesons such as non-linear contribution with density-dependent and density-

independent coupling constants. The relation between depletion and mass number has

been studied and the changes of neutron number

iii
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my special thanks of gratitude to my supervisor Dr.

Mrutunjaya Bhuyan and our coordinators who gave me this golden opportunity to do

this wonderful project on the topic Bubble Structure of Exotic Nuclei within Relativistic

mean field Approach. This has also helped me do loads of research and learn new things

such as programming and Origin software.

Secondly, I would like to thank my parents and friends who have helped me in

finalizing the project within the limited time frame. I’m over whelmed in all humbleness

and gratefulness to acknowledge my depth to all those who have helped me to put these

ideas well above the level of simplicity and into something concrete.

iv
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Abstract............................................................................................................................iii

Acknowledgements..........................................................................................................iv

Table of Contents..............................................................................................................v

List of Figures..................................................................................................................vi

List of Tables...................................................................................................................vii

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION..................................................................................1

1.1 What is nuclear Bubble?..........................................................................................1

1.2 How is it different from the normal nucleus?..........................................................1

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW......................................................................2

2.1 What experimental finding do we have for the bubble nucleus?.............................2

2.2 Present status on the study of bubble nuclei………………………………………3

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY.................................................................................4

CHAPTER 4: RESULT AND ANALYSIS...................................................................6

4.1 Graphs......................................................................................................................6

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION.....................................................................................13

References.......................................................................................................................14

v
 LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: Density distribution of nucleons for Ar-46…………………………………..6

Figure 2: Density distribution of nucleons for Ar-48…………………………………...6

Figure 3: Density distribution of nucleons for Ar-50…………………………………...6

Figure 4: Density distribution of nucleons for Ar-52…………………………………...7

Figure 5: Density distribution of nucleons for Ar-54…………………………………...7

Figure 6: Density distribution of nucleons for Ar-56…………………………………...7

Figure 7: Density distribution of nucleons for Ar-58…………………………………...8

Figure 8: Density distribution of nucleons for Ar-60…………………………………...8

Figure 9: Density distribution of nucleons for Ar-62…………………………………...8

Figure10: Density distribution of nucleons for Ar-64…………………………………..9

Figure11: Density distribution of nucleons for Ar-66…………………………………..9

Figure 12: Bubble parameter with respect to neutron vs Mass

Number………………..10

Figure 13: Bubble parameter with respect to proton vs Mass Number…………………

11

Figure 14: Bubble parameter (total) vs Mass Number…………………………………

11

Figure 15: Total density vs Radius graph for all nuclei…………………………………

12

vi
 LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: All the data of 11

nuclei…………………………………………………...10

vii
 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 What is nuclear Bubble?

During the seventies, it was suggested that some nuclei might have cores deficient in

nucleons. Such nuclei were named bubble nuclei and they were first detected in 2016.

Usually, the protons and neutrons that make up a nucleus are distributed evenly

throughout. But in a bubble nucleus, there is a dip in nucleon distribution at the center.

The first bubble nuclei discovered was34Si.See Sec.1. Many researchers are taking

interest in the “Bubble Structure’ and the depletion of central nucleons. There has been

an increase in theoretical [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8] and experimental [9] researches on

studying the structure of bubble nuclei.

1.2 How is it different from the normal nucleus?

In a classical picture, the medium-ranged attraction of nuclear forces implies that

nucleons interact significantly only with adjacent nucleons, leading to a saturation of the

nuclear central density. The delocalization of the nucleons explains that the density

will remain constant in quantum mechanical sense. Further electron scattering

experiment has showed that the central density remains constant. This are all true for a

stable nuclei. But in an exotic nuclei with a bubble nuclei, the central density seems to

have a noticeable dip which arises due to the un-occupancy of the s-state [9].

1
 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 What experimental finding do we have for the bubble nucleus?

The dip in density at the center arises due to the vacancy of the s-state close to the Fermi

Surface. The density becomes evidently low or completely disappear. The s-state

becomes vacant when s1/2 state switches with another state located above, for example,

2s1/2 and 1d3/2 or 3s1/2 and1

1h11/2 states [10]. On the other hand, the bubble phenomenon occurs in heavy and

super-heavy nuclei [11, 12, 13, 14, 15] because of Coulomb repulsion and or a

combination of coulomb and nucleon-interactions. The bubble formation is also affected

by deformation. For deformed nuclei, the central depletion does not seem to depend on

the occupancy of the 2s1/2 state [16], whereas, in spherical nuclei, the central depletion

completely depends on the occupancy of 2s1/2. Spherical nuclei with unoccupied 2s1/2

state show central depletion. The effects of central depletion are also studied and it is

shown that the effect is not visible enough in the case of neutron-skin thickness. The

one-proton removal technique was used by Mutschler [9] to identify the unoccupied

2s1/2state in 34-Si. This has created pathways for newer studies about central depletion

and nuclear structure. For theoretical studies, relativistic mean-field, non-relativistic

mean-field, nuclear density functional theory, and many other theories are being used

worldwide to study the bubble nuclei structures. It has been reported that the central

depletion is generally weaker in deformed nuclei when compared to spherical nuclei.

This difference might be caused by the occupancy of the sd-shell but the actual

mechanism has not yet been known and studied properly. Relativistic mean-field

models [17] are used to study structures of nuclei of N=20 and N=28.The models

include all the non-linear interactions [18, 19, 20] of the mesons and density-

dependent linear interactions separately with different coupling constants. Studies have

2
been done on deformed nuclei such as 40-Mg, 42-Si, and 44-S. These nuclei have

shown central depletion. 24-48 Si nuclei have also been studied which are spherical,

oblate, and prolate in shapes with a small range of deformation (β=0-0.4). This allows

studying the effect of change in de-formation with central depletion. The neutron-

proton ratio has also been taken into account as well as the pairing energy.

2.2 Present status on the study of bubble nuclei.

Ongoing experimental results for a Bubble in 34Si has opened a significant way for

theoretical exploration, that has, up until this point, given a sensible amount of data [21,

9, 3, 1, 2, 10,22, 17, 23, 5, 4] on potential bubble nuclei, for example, 22-O, 34-Si, 46-

Ar, 68-Ar, 206-Hg, and proton semi-bubble in super-heavy 294-Og. 22Si (Z = 14) in N

= 8 isotones, 30Ne, 32Mg and34Si (Z = 10, 12 and 14) in N = 20 isotones show

significant bubble structures with the central depletion. The isotones 46Ar, 56S, 58Ar

with N = 28 and 40 and the isotones with N = 126isotones and Z =48-78 appear

critical central density depletion and can be circled as bubble nucle.

3
 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

The lagrangian for RMF models used for this project are mainly of two types: (i)Linear

terms of mesons dependent on the nucleonic degree of freedom and non-linear terms of

mesons elaborating self and mixed interactions where the coupling constants

independent of the density [18, 19, 20](ii)Linear and non-linear terms of meson

interactions with coupling constants dependent on density. We have taken into

account NL3 and NL3* models of RMF and their parameters where σ, ω, and ρ mesons

are for the linear terms and σ meson for the non-linear and self-interacting term. The

non-linear interactions of ω meson are given by the FSU-Gold model. The FUS-Garnet

model includes the mixed interactions for the ω and ρ mesons. Two other models that

are used are DD-ME2 and DD-PC1 for other meson interactions. The Lagrangians for

the models are given below:

The notations here have their usual meaning and can to be referred to [19, 20, 24, 25]

The lagrangian for DD-PC model is given below:

This model includes isoscalar-scalar (S), isoscalar-vector (V) and isovector-vector (TV)

in-teractions. [26]

4
The extent of depletion of central densities is parameterized as Bubble Parameters. The

Bubble parameter can be defined as:

where,τ=p,n and ρτ,c,ρτ,max means central density and maximum density. Another

versionof the bubble parameter was used which is defined as

Where ρτ,av is the average density given by

Rτ,c is the diffraction radius[4, 27] and Nτ is the number of nucleon. The bubble

parameter value gives us an estimation of the depletion of central density concerning

maximum density and central densities. A positive value indicates the presence of a

bubble inside a nucleus.

For our project we used NL3 RMF model.

5
CHAPTER 4: RESULT AND ANALYSIS

6
4.1 Graphs

Figure 1: Density distribution

of nucleons for Ar-46

Figure 2: Density distribution

of nucleons for Ar-48

Figure 3: Density distribution

of nucleons for Ar-50

7
Figure 4: Density distribution
of nucleons for Ar-52

Figure 5: Density distribution

of nucleons for Ar-54

Figure 6: Density distribution

of nucleons for Ar-56

8
Figure 7: Density distribution
of nucleons for Ar-58

Figure 8: Density distribution

of nucleons for Ar-60

Figure 9: Density distribution

of nucleons for Ar-62

9
 Figure10: Density distribution
of nucleons for Ar-64

Figure11: Density distribution

of nucleons for Ar-66

The graphs give us a visual representation of the nucleons. The yellow region at the

center indicates the presence of bubble structure. The NL3 model is used to get the

density data. The data was then converted to 3-D matrix and a contour plot was plotted.

The graphs show us that as the nucleon number increases the bubble structure becomes

more evident. This suggests that that the depletion factor increases with increase in

neutron number.

10
 Table 1: All the data of 11 nuclei.

The depletion factor in this experiment for Ar-46 came out to be 0.387 whereas it

was 0.34 in [28]. The same paper stated the Ar-58 depletion factor as 0.47 whereas the

calculated value is 0.435. This results suggest that the results show resemblance with

[28].

Figure 12: Bubble parameter with respect to neutron vs Mass Number.

11
 Figure 13: Bubble parameter with respect to proton vs Mass Number.

Figure 14: Bubble parameter (total) vs Mass Number.

12
The Bubble Parameter with respect to total nucleon and bubble parameter with respect

to proton follow a similar trend. This suggest that the depletion factor is mainly

influenced by the proton in the nuclei. The bubble parameter with respect to neutron

shows and overall increasing trend with mass number. However, the other to graph

shows a similar pattern with a trough at around mass 50 and a peak at approximately

mass 60.

Figure 15: Total density vs Radius graph for all nuclei.

13
 The Initial part of the graphs show a dip of total density with shows the bubble

structure. However, the magnitude of dip could not be found from this curve. So the

contour graph as plotted and the depletion factors for each nuclei were calculated.

14
 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION

The bubble structure in isotopes have been quite evident in this experiment from Figure

15. And all calculations have shown to be valid when cross matched with other data.

The contour plots have provided visual representation of the bubble structure in some of

the Argon isotopes. The depletions factors have also shown resemblance with other

resources. This suggests consistency. The relation of different depletion factors with

mass number suggest the total depletion factor is solely dependent on the proton

depletion factor.

15
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19