The calculation of line widths constitutes theoretical and computational challenges in the calculation of opacities of hot dense plasmas. Opacity models use line broadening approximations that are untested at stellar interior conditions. Moreover, ca
lculations of atomic spectra of the sun, indicate a large discrepancy in the K-shell line widths between several atomic codes and the OP. In this work, the atomic code STAR is used to study the sensitivity of solar opacities to line-broadening. Variations in the solar opacity profile, due to an increase of the Stark widths resulting from discrepancies with OP, are compared, in light of the solar opacity problem, with the required opacity variations of the present day sun, as imposed by helioseismic and neutrino observations. The resulting variation profile, is much larger than the discrepancy between different atomic codes, agrees qualitatively with the missing opacity profile, recovers about half of the missing opacity nearby the convection boundary and has a little effect in the internal regions. Since it is hard to estimate quantitatively the uncertainty in the Stark widths, we show that an increase of all line widths by a factor of about 100 recovers quantitatively the missing opacity. These results emphasize the possibility that photoexcitation processes are not modeled properly, and more specifically, highlight the need for a better theoretical characterization of the line broadening phenomena at stellar interior conditions and of the uncertainty due to the way it is implemented by atomic codes.
A new opacity model based on the Super-Transition-Array (STA) method for the calculation of monochromatic opacities of local thermodynamic equilibrium plasmas, was developed. The atomic code, named STAR (STA-Revised), is described and used to calcula
te spectral opacities for a solar model implementing the recent AGSS09 composition. Calculations are carried throughout the solar radiative zone. The relative contributions of different chemical elements and atomic processes to the total Rosseland mean opacity are analyzed in detail. Monochromatic opacities and charge state distributions were compared with the widely used Opacity-Project (OP) code, for several elements near the radiation-convection interface. STAR Rosseland opacities for the solar mixture show a very good agreement with OP and the OPAL opacity code, throughout the radiation zone. Finally, an explicit STA calculation of the full AGSS09 photospheric mixture, including all heavy metals was performed. It was shown that due to their extremely low abundance, and despite being very good photon absorbers, the heavy elements do not affect the Rosseland opacity.
Quantum chromodynamics and the electroweak theory at low energies are prominent instances of the combination of a short-range and a long-range interaction. For the description of light nuclei, the large nucleon-nucleon scattering lengths produced by
the strong interaction, and the reduction of the weak interaction to the Coulomb potential, play a crucial role. Helium-3 is the first bound nucleus comprised of more than one proton in which this combination of forces can be studied. We demonstrate a proper renormalization of Helium-3 using the pionless effective field theory as the formal representation of the nuclear regime as strongly interacting fermions. The theory is found consistent at leading and next-to-leading order without isospin-symmetry-breaking 3-nucleon interactions and a non-perturbative treatment of the Coulomb interaction. The conclusion highlights the significance of the regularization method since a comparison to previous work is contradictory if the difference in those methods is not considered. With a perturbative Coulomb interaction, as suggested by dimensional analysis, we find the Helium-3 system properly renormalized, too. For both treatments, renormalization-scheme independence of the effective field theory is demonstrated by regulating the potential and a variation of the associated cutoff.
We show how nuclear effective field theory (EFT) and ab initio nuclear-structure methods can turn input from lattice quantum chromodynamics (LQCD) into predictions for the properties of nuclei. We argue that pionless EFT is the appropriate theory to
describe the light nuclei obtained in recent LQCD simulations carried out at pion masses much heavier than the physical pion mass. We solve the EFT using the effective-interaction hyperspherical harmonics and auxiliary-field diffusion Monte Carlo methods. Fitting the three leading-order EFT parameters to the deuteron, dineutron and triton LQCD energies at $m_{pi}approx 800$ MeV, we reproduce the corresponding alpha-particle binding and predict the binding energies of mass-5 and 6 ground states.
We perform state-of-the-art large-scale shell-model calculations of the structure factors for elastic spin-dependent WIMP scattering off 129,131Xe, 127I, 73Ge, 19F, 23Na, 27Al, and 29Si. This comprehensive survey covers the non-zero-spin nuclei relev
ant to direct dark matter detection. We include a pedagogical presentation of the formalism necessary to describe elastic and inelastic WIMP-nucleus scattering. The valence spaces and nuclear interactions employed have been previously used in nuclear structure calculations for these mass regions and yield a good spectroscopic description of these isotopes. We use spin-dependent WIMP-nucleus currents based on chiral effective field theory (EFT) at the one-body level and including the leading long-range two-body currents due to pion exchange, which are predicted in chiral EFT. Results for all structure factors are provided with theoretical error bands due to the nuclear uncertainties of WIMP currents in nuclei.
Chiral effective field theory (EFT) provides a systematic expansion for the coupling of WIMPs to nucleons at the momentum transfers relevant to direct cold dark matter detection. We derive the currents for spin-dependent WIMP scattering off nuclei at
the one-body level and include the leading long-range two-body currents, which are predicted in chiral EFT. As an application, we calculate the structure factor for spin-dependent WIMP scattering off 129,131Xe nuclei, using nuclear interactions that have been developed to study nuclear structure and double-beta decays in this region. We provide theoretical error bands due to the nuclear uncertainties of WIMP currents in nuclei.
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 ne
utrinoless 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.
We extend the virial equation of state to include 3H and 3He nuclei, and predict significant mass-three fractions near the neutrinosphere in supernovae. While alpha particles are often more abundant, we demonstrate that energy transfer cross-sections
for muon and tau neutrinos at low densities are dominated by breakup of the loosely-bound 3H and 3He nuclei. The virial coefficients involving A=3 nuclei are calculated directly from the corresponding nucleon-3H and nucleon-3He scattering phase shifts. For the neutral-current inelastic cross-sections and the energy transfer cross sections, we perform ab-initio calculations based on microscopic two- and three-nucleon interactions and meson-exchange currents.
The 4He total photoabsorption cross section is calculated with the realistic nucleon-nucleon potential Argonne V18 and the three-nucleon force (3NF) Urbana IX. Final state interaction is included rigorously via the Lorentz Integral Transform method.
A rather pronounced giant resonance with peak cross sections of 3 (3.2) mb is obtained with (without) 3NF. Above 50 MeV strong 3NF effects, up to 35%, are present. Good agreement with experiment is found close to threshold. A comparison in the giant resonance region is inconclusive, since present data do not show a unique picture.
