Neutron skins and neutron stars

Neutron skins in stable and neutron-rich atomic nuclei are linked to the equation of state (EOS) of nuclear matter, which in turn influences the size, mass and, more generally, the internal structure of a neutron star. The thickness of this skin helps determine the nuclear symmetry energy, which is a crucial input for the EOS. I will report recent advances on theoretical and experimental methods to extract the symmetry energy of the EOS from nuclear reactions in the range of projectile energies range from 100 MeV/nucleon to several GeV/nucleon.