Relativistic Transport Approach to Collective Nuclear Dynamics

The isoscalar giant monopole resonance (ISGMR) and isovector giant dipole resonance (IVGDR) in finite nuclei are studied in the framework of a relativistic transport approach. The kinetic equations are derived within an effective nucleon-meson field theory in the Relativistic Mean Field (RMF) scheme, even extended to density dependent vertices. Small amplitude oscillations are analysed using the Relativistic Vlasov (RV) approach, i.e. neglecting nucleon collision terms. The time evolution of the isoscalar monopole moment and isovector dipole moment and the corresponding Fourier power spectra are discussed. In the case of ^{208}Pb we study in detail the dependence of the monopole response on the effective mass and symmetry energy at saturation given by the used covariant effective interaction. We show that a reduced m^* and a larger a_4 can compensate the effect on the ISGMR energy centroid of a much larger compressibility modulus K_{nm}. This result is important in order to overcome the conflicting determination of the nuclear compressibility between non-relativistic and relativistic effective interactions. For the symmetry energy dynamical effects, we carefully analyze the influence of the inclusion of an effective isovector scalar channel, \delta-meson field, with constant and density dependent couplings. We show the relevance of the $slope$ (or pressure) of the symmetry energy at saturation on the ISGMR and IVGDR modes for neutron-rich systems. Density dependent vertices are not much affecting our conclusions. Following as a guidance some extended dispersion relations in nuclear matter, we see two main reasons for that, the smoothness of the density dependences around saturation and the presence of compensation effects coming from rearrangement terms.