No Arabic abstract
We propose formulas of the nuclear beta-decay rate that are useful in a practical calculation. The decay rate is determined by the product of the lepton and hadron current densities. A widely used formula relies upon the fact that the low-energy lepton wave functions in a nucleus can be well approximated by a constant and linear to the radius for the $s$-wave and $p$-wave wave functions, respectively. We find, however, the deviation from such a simple approximation is evident for heavy nuclei with large $Z$ by numerically solving the Dirac equation. In our proposed formulas, the neutrino wave function is treated exactly as a plane wave, while the electron wave function is obtained by iteratively solving the integral equation, thus we can control the uncertainty of the approximate wave function. The leading-order approximation gives a formula equivalent to the conventional one and overestimates the decay rate. We demonstrate that the next-to-leading-order formula reproduces well the exact result for a schematic transition density as well as a microscopic one obtained by a nuclear energy-density functional method.
We show that chiral effective field theory (EFT) two-body currents provide important contributions to the quenching of low-momentum-transfer Gamow-Teller transitions, and use chiral EFT to predict the momentum-transfer dependence that is probed in neutrinoless double-beta decay. We then calculate for the first time the neutrinoless double-beta decay operator based on chiral EFT currents and study the nuclear matrix elements at successive orders. The contributions from chiral two-body currents are significant and should be included in all calculations.
Gamow-Teller (GT) and spin-dipole (SD) strength distributions of four doubly magic nuclei $^{48}$Ca, $^{90}$Zr, $^{132}$Sn and $^{208}$Pb are studied by the self-consistent Hartree-Fock plus random phase approximation (RPA) method. The Skyrme forces SAMi and SAMi-T without/with tensor interactions are adopted in our calculations. The calculated strengths are compared with available experimental data. The RPA results of GT and SD strengths of all four nuclei show fine agreement with observed GT and SD resonances in energy. A small GT peak below the main GT resonance is better described by the Skyrme interaction SAMi-T with the tensor terms. The quenching factors for GT and SD are extracted from the comparisons between RPA results and experimental strengths. It is pointed out that the quenching effect on experimental SD peaks is somewhat modest compared with that on GT peaks in the four nuclei.
Gamow-Teller (GT) transitions from high-spin isomers are studied using the sum-rule approach and the shell model. The GT transition strengths from the high-spin isomeric states show a stronger collectivity than those from the ground states in two $N=Z$ nuclei, $^{52}$Fe and $^{94}$Ag. It is argued that the spin-up and spin-down Fermi spheres involved in the GT transitions from the high-spin isomeric states play important roles. These Fermi spheres are analogous to the isospin-up and isospin-down Fermi spheres for the GT transitions from the ground states in $N>Z$ nuclei and create a strong collectivity.
We calculate the decay rates lambda_(beta^-_c) and lambda_(beta^-_b) of the continuum- and bound-state beta^- decays for bare 205Hg80+ and 207Tl81+ ions. For the ratio of the decay rates R_(b/c) = lambda_(beta^-_b)/lambda_(beta^-_c) we obtain the values R_(b/c) = 0.161 and R_(b/c) = 0.190 for bare 205Hg80+ and 207Tl81+ ions, respectively. The theoretical value of the ratio R_(b/c) = 0.190 for the decays of 207Tl81+ agrees within 1% of accuracy with the experimental data R^exp_(b/c) = 0.188(18), obtained at GSI. The theoretical ratio R_(b/c) = 0.161 for 205Hg80+ is about 20% smaller than the experimental value R^exp_(b/c) = 0.20(2), measured recently at GSI.
Observation of neutrinoless double beta decay, a lepton number violating process that has been proposed to clarify the nature of neutrino masses, has spawned an enormous world-wide experimental effort. Relating nuclear decay rates to high-energy, beyond the Standard Model (BSM) physics requires detailed knowledge of non-perturbative QCD effects. Using lattice QCD, we compute the necessary matrix elements of short-range operators, which arise due to heavy BSM mediators, that contribute to this decay via the leading order $pi^- to pi^+$ exchange diagrams. Utilizing our result and taking advantage of effective field theory methods will allow for model-independent calculations of the relevant two-nucleon decay, which may then be used as input for nuclear many-body calculations of the relevant experimental decays. Contributions from short-range operators may prove to be equally important to, or even more important than, those from long-range Majorana neutrino exchange.