Effects of spin-orbit interaction on nuclear response and neutrino mean free path

The effects of the spin-orbit component of the particle-hole interaction on nuclear response functions and neutrino mean free path are examined. A complete treatment of the full Skyrme interaction in the case of symmetric nuclear matter and pure neutron matter is given. Numerical results for neutron matter are discussed. It is shown that the effects of the spin-orbit interaction remain small, even at momentum transfer larger than the Fermi momentum. The neutrino mean free paths are marginally affected.

Figure 1

The interaction parameter ${\tilde{W}}_1^{(\alpha )}(\mathrm{q},\omega )$ as a function of ω, for two different values of the momentum transfer. Solid and dashed lines correspond to $S=0$ and $S=1$ channels, respectively. The results are for neutron matter at $T=0$ and $\rho ={\rho }_0$.

Figure 2

The dynamical structure function $S^{(\alpha )}(\mathrm{q},\omega )$ at $T=0$ as a function of ω, for two values of the momentum transfer $\mathrm{q}$ and at densities $\rho ={\rho }_0/2$ and ${\rho }_0$. Solid and dashed lines correspond to $S=0$ and $S=1$ channels, respectively. The thin lines represent the structure function without spin-orbit interaction.