No Arabic abstract
The recent experimental observation of isospin symmetry breaking (ISB) in the ground states of the $T=3/2$ mirror pair $^{73}$Sr - $^{73}$Br is theoretically studied using large-scale shell model calculations. The large valence space and the successful PFSDG-U effective interaction used for the nuclear part of the problem capture possible structural changes and provide a robust basis to treat the ISB effects of both electromagnetic and non-electromagnetic origin. The calculated shifts and mirror-energy-differences are consistent with the inversion of the $I^{pi}$= 1/2$^{-}, 5/2^{-}$ states between $^{73}$Sr - $^{73}$Br, and suggest that the role played by the Coulomb interaction is dominant. An isospin breaking contribution of nuclear origin is estimated to be $approx 25$ keV.
In this work we present the first steps towards benchmarking isospin symmetry breaking in ab initio nuclear theory for calculations of superallowed Fermi $beta$-decay. Using the valence-space in-medium similarity renormalization group, we calculate b and c coefficients of the isobaric multiplet mass equation, starting from two different Hamiltonians constructed from chiral effective field theory. We compare results to experimental measurements for all T=1 isobaric analogue triplets of relevance to superallowed $beta$-decay for masses A=10 to A=74 and find an overall agreement within approximately 250 keV of experimental data for both b and c coefficients. A greater level of accuracy, however, is obtained by a phenomenological Skyrme interaction or a classical charged-sphere estimate. Finally, we show that evolution of the valence-space operator does not meaningfully improve the quality of the coefficients with respect to experimental data, which indicates that higher-order many-body effects are likely not responsible for the observed discrepancies.
We analyze and propose a solution to the apparent inconsistency between our current knowledge of the Equation of State of asymmetric nuclear matter, the energy of the Isobaric Analog State (IAS) in a heavy nucleus such as 208Pb, and the isospin symmetry breaking forces in the nuclear medium. This is achieved by performing state-of-the-art Hartree-Fock plus Random Phase Approximation calculations of the IAS that include all isospin symmetry breaking contributions. To this aim, we propose a new effective interaction that is successful in reproducing the IAS excitation energy without compromising other properties of finite nuclei.
The assumption of an exact isospin symmetry would imply equal strengths for mirror E1 transitions (at least, in the long-wavelength limit). Actually, large violations of this symmetry rule have been indicated by a number of experimental results, the last of which is the 67As - 67Se doublet investigated at GAMMASPHERE. Here, we examine in detail various possible origins of the observed asymmetry. The coherent effect of Coulomb-induced mixing with the high-lying Giant Isovector Monopole Resonance is proposed as the most probable process to produce a large asymmetry in the E1 transitions, with comparatively small effect on the other properties of the parent and daughter levels.
The binding energy differences of the valence proton and neutron of the mirror nuclei, $^{15}$O -- $^{15}$N, $^{17}$F -- $^{17}$O, $^{39}$Ca -- $^{39}$K and $^{41}$Sc -- $^{41}$Ca, are calculated using the quark-meson coupling (QMC) model. The calculation involves nuclear structure and shell effects explicitly. It is shown that binding energy differences of a few hundred keV arise from the strong interaction, even after subtracting all electromagnetic corrections. The origin of these differences may be ascribed to the charge symmetry breaking effects set in the strong interaction through the u and d current quark mass difference.
Effects of the isospin-symmetry breaking (ISB) beyond mean-field Coulomb terms are systematically studied in nuclear masses near the $N=Z$ line. The Coulomb exchange contributions are calculated exactly. We use extended Skyrme energy density functionals (EDFs) with proton-neutron-mixed densities, to which we add new terms breaking the isospin symmetry. Two parameters associated with the new terms are determined by fitting mirror and triplet displacement energies (MDEs and TDEs) of isospin multiplets. The new EDFs reproduce MDEs for the $T=frac12$ doublets and $T=1$ triplets, and TDEs for the $T=1$ triplets. Relative strengths of the obtained isospin-symmetry-breaking terms {em are not} consistent with the differences in the $NN$ scattering lengths, $a_{nn}$, $a_{pp}$, and $a_{np}$. Based on low-energy experimental data, it seems thus impossible to delineate the strong-force ISB effects from beyond-mean-field Coulomb-energy corrections.