No Arabic abstract
We present the state-of-the art shell model calculations in a large model space (pf for protons, fpgd for neutrons), which allow to study simultaneously excitations across the Z=28 and N=50 shell gaps. We explore the region in the vicinity of 78Ni, being a subject of intense experimental investigations. Our calculations account correctly for the known low lying excited states in this region, including those which may correspond to cross-shell excitations. We observe the minimum of the N=50 mass gap at Z=32 consistent with experimental data and its further increase towards Z=28, indicating a robustness of the N=50 gap in 78Ni. The evolution of N=50 gap along the nickel chain is shown to bear similarities with what is know in oxygen and calcium chains, providing a new opportunity for the studies of 3-body monopole effects in medium mass nuclei.
The evolution of the N=50 gap is analyzed as a function of the occupation of the proton f5/2 and p3/2 orbits. It is based on experimental atomic masses, using three different methods of one or two-neutron separation energies of ground or isomeric states. We show that the effect of correlations, which is maximized at Z=32 could be misleading with respect to the determination of the size of the shell gap, especially when using the method with two-neutron separation energies. From the methods that are the least perturbed by correlations, we estimate the N=50 spherical shell gap in 78Ni. Whether 78Ni would be a rigid spherical or deformed nucleus is discussed in comparison with other nuclei in which similar nucleon-nucleon forces are at play.
Background: Recent accumulation of experimental data is revealing the nuclear deformation in vicinity of 42Si. This requests systematic theoretical studies to clarify more specific aspects of nuclear deformation and its causes. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the nature and cause of the nuclear deformations and its relation to the loss of the neutron magic number N = 28 in vicinity of 42Si. Method: The framework of antisymmetrized molecular dynamics with Gogny D1S density functional has been applied. The model assumes no spatial symmetry and can describe triaxial deformation. It also incorporates with the configuration mixing by the generator coordinate method. Results: We show that the shell effects and the loss of the magicity induce various nuclear deformations. In particular, the N = 26 and N = 30 isotones have triaxially deformed ground states. We also note that the erosion of the N = 28 magicity gradually occurs and has no definite boundaries. Conclusion: The present calculation predicts various nuclear deformations in vicinity of 42Si and suggests that the inter-band electric transitions are good measure for it. We also remark that the magicity is lost without the single-particle level inversion in the oblate deformed nuclei such as 42Si.
We present a procedure that is helpful to reduce the computational complexity of large-scale shell-model calculations, by preserving as much as possible the role of the rejected degrees of freedom in an effective approach. Our truncation is driven first by the analysis of the effective single-particle energies of the original large-scale shell-model hamiltonian, so to locate the relevant degrees of freedom to describe a class of isotopes or isotones, namely the single-particle orbitals that will constitute a new truncated model space. The second step is to perform an unitary transformation of the original hamiltonian from its model space into the truncated one. This transformation generates a new shell-model hamiltonian, defined in a smaller model space, that retains effectively the role of the excluded single-particle orbitals. As an application of this procedure, we have chosen a realistic shell-model hamiltonian defined in a large model space, set up by seven and five proton and neutron single-particle orbitals outside 88Sr, respectively. We study the dependence of shell-model results upon different truncations of the original model space for the Zr, Mo, Ru, Pd, Cd, and Sn isotopic chains, showing the reliability of this truncation procedure.
Nuclei with magic numbers serve as important benchmarks in nuclear theory. In addition, neutron-rich nuclei play an important role in the astrophysical rapid neutron-capture process (r-process). 78Ni is the only doubly-magic nucleus that is also an important waiting point in the r-process, and serves as a major bottleneck in the synthesis of heavier elements. The half-life of 78Ni has been experimentally deduced for the first time at the Coupled Cyclotron Facility of the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory at Michigan State University, and was found to be 110 (+100 -60) ms. In the same experiment, a first half-life was deduced for 77Ni of 128 (+27 -33) ms, and more precise half-lives were deduced for 75Ni and 76Ni of 344 (+20 -24) ms and 238 (+15 -18) ms respectively.
We propose a thick-restart block Lanczos method, which is an extension of the thick-restart Lanczos method with the block algorithm, as an eigensolver of the large-scale shell-model calculations. This method has two advantages over the conventional Lanczos method: the precise computations of the near-degenerate eigenvalues, and the efficient computations for obtaining a large number of eigenvalues. These features are quite advantageous to compute highly excited states where the eigenvalue density is rather high. A shell-model code, named KSHELL, equipped with this method was developed for massively parallel computations, and it enables us to reveal nuclear statistical properties which are intensively investigated by recent experimental facilities. We describe the algorithm and performance of the KSHELL code and demonstrate that the present method outperforms the conventional Lanczos method.