No Arabic abstract
We compute the binding energies, radii, and densities for selected medium-mass nuclei within coupled-cluster theory and employ the bare chiral nucleon-nucleon interaction at order N3LO. We find rather well-converged results in model spaces consisting of 15 oscillator shells, and the doubly magic nuclei 40Ca, 48Ca, and the exotic 48Ni are underbound by about 1 MeV per nucleon within the CCSD approximation. The binding-energy difference between the mirror nuclei 48Ca and 48Ni is close to theoretical mass table evaluations. Our computation of the one-body density matrices and the corresponding natural orbitals and occupation numbers provides a first step to a microscopic foundation of the nuclear shell model.
On the basis of the Brueckner-Hartree-Fock method with the nucleon-nucleon forces obtained from lattice QCD simulations, the properties of the medium-heavy doubly-magic nuclei such as 16^O and 40^Ca are investigated. We found that those nuclei are bound for the pseudo-scalar meson mass M_PS ~ 470 MeV. The mass number dependence of the binding energies, single-particle spectra and density distributions are qualitatively consistent with those expected from empirical data at the physical point, although these hypothetical nuclei at heavy quark mass have smaller binding energies than the real nuclei.
Classes of two-nucleon ($2N$) contact interactions are developed in configuration space at leading order (LO), next-to-leading order (NLO), and next-to-next-to-next-to-leading order (N3LO) by fitting the experimental singlet $np$ scattering length and deuteron binding energy at LO, and $np$ and $pp$ scattering data in the laboratory-energy range 0--15 MeV at NLO and 0--25 MeV at N3LO. These interactions are regularized by including two Gaussian cutoffs, one for $T,$=$,0$ and the other for $T,$=$,1$ channels. The cutoffs are taken to vary in the ranges $R_0,$=$(1.5$--2.3) fm and $R_1,$=$(1.5$--3.0) fm. The 780 (1,100) data points up to 15 (25) MeV energy, primarily differential cross sections, are fitted by the NLO (N3LO) models with a $chi^2$/datum about 1.7 or less (well below 1.5), when harder cutoff values are adopted. As a first application, we report results for the binding energies of nuclei with mass numbers $A,$=$,3$--6 and 16 obtained with selected LO and NLO $2N$ models both by themselves as well as in combination with a LO three-nucleon ($3N$) contact interaction. The latter is characterized by a single low-energy constant that is fixed to reproduce the experimental $^3$H binding energy. The inclusion of the $3N$ interaction largely removes the sensitivity to cutoff variations in the few-nucleon systems and leads to predictions for the $^3$He and $^4$He binding energies that cluster around 7.8 MeV and 30 MeV, respectively. However, in $^{16}$O this cutoff sensitivity remains rather strong. Finally, predictions at LO only are also reported for medium-mass nuclei with $A,$=$,40$, 48, and 90.
We combine the coupled-cluster method and the Lorentz integral transform for the computation of inelastic reactions into the continuum. We show that the bound-state-like equation characterizing the Lorentz integral transform method can be reformulated based on extensions of the coupled-cluster equation-of-motion method, and we discuss strategies for viable numerical solutions. Starting from a chiral nucleon-nucleon interaction at next-to-next-to-next-to-leading order, we compute the giant dipole resonances of 4He, 16,22O and 40Ca, truncating the coupled-cluster equation-of-motion method at the two-particle-two-hole excitation level. Within this scheme, we find a low-lying E1 strength in the neutron-rich 22O nucleus, which compares fairly well with data from [Leistenschneider et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 86, 5442 (2001)]. We also compute the electric dipole polariziability in 40Ca. Deficiencies of the employed Hamiltonian lead to overbinding, too small charge radii and a too small electric dipole polarizability in 40Ca.
Background: Elastic scattering is probably the main event in the interactions of nucleons with nuclei. Even if this process has been extensively studied in the last years, a consistent description, i.e. starting from microscopic two- and many-body forces connected by the same symmetries and principles, is still under development. Purpose: In this work we study the domain of applicability of microscopic two-body chiral potentials in the construction of an optical potential. Methods: We basically follow the KMT approach to build a microscopic complex optical potential and then we perform some test calculations on 16O at different energies. Results: Our conclusion is that a particular set of potentials with a Lippmann-Schwinger cutoff at relatively high energies (above 500 MeV) has the best performances reproducing the scattering observables. Conclusions: Our work shows that building an optical potential within Chiral Perturbation Theory is a promising approach to the description of elastic proton scattering, in particular, in view of the future inclusion of many-body forces that naturally arise in such framework.
We closely investigate NN potentials based upon the Delta-full version of chiral effective field theory. We find that recently constructed NN potentials of this kind, which (when applied together with three-nucleon forces) were presented as predicting accurate binding energies and radii for a range of nuclei from A=16 to A=132 and providing accurate equations of state for nuclear matter, yield a chi^2/datum of 60 for the reproduction of the pp data below 100 MeV laboratory energy. We compare this result with the first semi-quantitative $NN$ potential ever constructed in the history of mankind: the Hamada-Johnston potential of the year of 1962. It turns out that the chi^2 for the new Delta-full potentials is more than three times what was already achieved some 60 years ago. In fact, there has not been any known NN potential during the entire history of nuclear forces with a chi^2 as large as the ones of these recent Delta-full potentials of the Gothenburg-Oak Ridge group of the year of 2020. We perceive this historical fact as highly disturbing in view of the current trend for which the term precision has become the most frequently used label to characterize contemporary advances in microscopic nuclear structure physics. We are able to trace the very large chi^2 as well as the apparent success of the potentials in nuclear structure to unrealistic predictions for P-wave states, in which the Delta-full NNLO potentials are off by up to 40 times the NNLO truncation errors. In fact, we show that, the worse the description of the P-wave states, the better the predictions in nuclear structure. Misleading results of the above kind are unhelpful to the communitys efforts in microscopic nuclear structure, because they obscure a correct understanding of the nature of the remaining problems and, thus, hamper sincere attempts towards genuine solutions.