Delta excitations in compressed finite nuclei

Abstract

We treat $^{16}\mathrm{O}$, $^{40}\mathrm{Ca}$, and $^{56}\mathrm{Ni}$ as systems of baryons which can exist in either the ground (nucleon) state or first excited (delta) state and follow their behavior under static comrpession using constrained spherical Hartree-Fock approximation (SHF). We use realistic effective nucleon-nucleon interactions with meson-exchange-based nucleon-delta transition potentials and delta-delta interactions and we make phenomenological adjustments to obtain SHF equilibrium properties in agreement with experiment. We then show how physical properties are affected by delta excitation under compression. We find that a significant fraction of the increase in energy of these nuclei under compression is stored in the form of \ensuremath{\Delta}-mass creation. This, in turn, may have implications for an enhanced role for nuclear compression in subthreshold pion production in nucleus-nucleus collisions. In addition, including the deltas leads to a lower compressibility of each of these nuclei.