  By assuming that the isospin- and momentum-dependent MDI interaction has a
form similar to the Gogny-like effective two-body interaction with a Yukawa
finite-range term and the momentum dependence only originates from the
finite-range exchange interaction, we determine its parameters by comparing the
predicted potential energy density functional in uniform nuclear matter with
what has been usually given and used extensively in transport models for
studying isospin effects in intermediate-energy heavy-ion collisions as well as
in investigating the properties of hot asymmetric nuclear matter and neutron
star matter. We then use the density matrix expansion to derive from the
resulting finite-range exchange interaction an effective Skyrme-like zero-range
interaction with density-dependent parameters. As an application, we study the
transition density and pressure at the inner edge of neutron star crusts using
the stability conditions derived from the linearized Vlasov equation for the
neutron star matter.
