Speaker
Description
We study how the nuclear symmetry energy and its density slope parameter affect the neutron dripline of finite nuclei and the macroscopic properties of neutron stars within a semiclassical liquid drop model (LDM). Our analysis employs energy density functionals constrained by chiral effective field theory. The symmetry energy at saturation density is fixed, while the surface tension parameter is calibrated by minimizing the root-mean-square deviation of total binding energies for 2208 experimentally known nuclei. Using this framework, we systematically explore correlations between symmetry energy parameters and key observables, including neutron driplines, crust–core transition densities, and the radii of 1.4 M⊙ neutron stars. Furthermore, we investigate the connection between macroscopic neutron star properties, such as the radius R₁.₄, and microscopic nuclear features, including the extent of isotopic chains and the last bound nucleus in the Z = 28 isotopic sequence. These results provide a unified perspective linking finite nuclei systematics with neutron star observables through the density dependence of the symmetry energy.