Nuclear mean field and equation of state of asymmetric nuclear matter

Neutron and proton mean field properties and equation of state of highly isospin asymmetric dense nuclear matter are studied using simple finite range effective interactions. The density dependence of nuclear symmetry energy is constrained on the basis of an approximate universal high density behaviour of asymmetric contribution to the nucleonic part of energy density of infinite n+p+e+μ matter in beta-equilibrium. Recently discovered astrophysical bounds from neutron star mass measurements and cooling phenomenology as well as informations coming from optical model analysis of nucleon–nucleus scattering data at intermediate energies, transport model analysis of flow data in heavy ion collisions and monopole mode of vibrations in finite nuclei have also been used to constrain the interaction parameters involved.