Nuclear symmetry energy and neutron-proton pair correlations in microscopic mean field theory

Sammanfattning: A major task of nuclear structure theory is to develop an effective interaction that is capable to predict properties of nuclei under extreme conditions. In this thesis three different areas of effective interactions have been studied: i) the density dependence, which is of importance for the understanding of neutron stars and neutron rich nuclei; ii) the symmetry energy which governs the evolution of the binding energy with changing N/Z ratio; and iii) the neutron proton pairing energy. The symmetry energy governs the isospin dependent part of the nuclear interaction and determines basic properties of neutron stars. The isospin dependence of short range correlations are in turn important for properties of N ~ Z nuclei as well as symmetric nuclear matter.