Speaker
Description
Information on neutron-star matter can be encoded in low-energy nuclear observables, particularly those sensitive to the isovector sector of the nuclear interaction. In this contribution, we investigate how the electric dipole polarizability of neutron-rich nuclei can be used to constrain macroscopic properties of canonical neutron stars within a universal-relation framework. The analysis is built around the dimensionless quantity $\zeta = \beta_{1.4}\tilde{L}^{-1}$, which combines the compactness $\beta_{1.4}$ of a $1.4~M_{\odot}$ neutron star with the slope of the nuclear symmetry energy at saturation density. The correlation between $\zeta$ and the dipole polarizability $\alpha_D$ is studied across a diverse set of relativistic and non-relativistic nuclear energy density functionals, including point-coupling and meson-exchange interactions, as well as Skyrme functionals. The resulting systematics reveal a pronounced exponential dependence that persists across the considered models, supporting the use of $\alpha_D$ as a nuclear imprint of neutron-star compactness. By confronting the universal correlation with available experimental dipole polarizability data, intervals for $\zeta$ are obtained. These intervals are subsequently used to infer limits on the neutron-star radius $R_{1.4}$ and the symmetry-energy slope parameter $L$, thereby highlighting finite-nucleus dipole polarizability as a laboratory probe of neutron-star matter.