Isospin asymmetry in nuclei and nuclear symmetry energy

The volume and surface symmetry parts of the nuclear symmetry energy and other coefficients of the liquid droplet model are determined from the measured atomic masses by the maximum likelihood estimator. The volume symmetry energy coefficient extracted from finite nuclei provides a constraint on the nuclear symmetry energy. This approach also yields the neutron skin of a finite nucleus through its relationship with the volume and surface symmetry terms and the Coulomb energy coefficient. The description of nuclear matter from the isoscalar and isovector components of the density dependent M3Y effective interaction provide a value of the symmetry energy that is consistent with the empirical value of the symmetry energy extracted from measured atomic masses and with other modern theoretical descriptions of nuclear matter.