Nuclear symmetry energy in relativistic mean field theory

The physical origin of the nuclear symmetry energy is studied within the relativistic mean field (RMF) theory. Based on the nuclear binding energies calculated with and without mean isovector potential for several isobaric chains we confirm earlier Skyrme-Hartree-Fock result that the nuclear symmetry energy strength depends on the mean level spacing epsilon(A) and an effective mean isovector potential strength K(A). A detailed analysis of the isospin dependence of these two components contributing to the nuclear symmetry energy reveals a quadratic dependence due to the mean-isoscalar potential, similar to epsilon T-2, and, completely unexpectedly, the presence of a strong linear component similar to kappa T(T + 1 + epsilon/kappa) in the isovector potential. The latter generates a nuclear symmetry energy in RMF theory that is proportional to E-sym similar to T(T + 1) at variance to the non-relativistic calculation. The origin of the linear term in RMF theory needs to be further explored. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.