117291846
Density-dependent nuclear interactions and the beta decay of 14C: chiral three-nucleon forces and Brown-Rho scaling
We study the role of density-dependent low-momentum nucleon-nucleon interactions in describing the anomalously long beta decay lifetime of 14C. We approach this problem both from the perspective of chiral effective field theory, in which genuine three-body forces generate an effective density-dependent two-body interaction, as well as from the perspective of Brown-Rho scaling, in which the masses and form factor cutoffs in one-boson-exchange interactions are modified in a dense nuclear medium due to the partial restoration of chiral symmetry. The beta decay transition of 14C to the ground state of 14N is calculated within the shell model using a model space consisting of two 0p-shell holes within a closed 16O core. The effective 0p-shell interaction is calculated up to second order in perturbation theory with single-particle energies extracted from experiment. We find that both three-nucleon forces and Brown-Rho scaling medium modifications give qualitatively similar results not only for the ground state to ground state Gamow-Teller transition but also for Gamow-Teller transitions from excited states of 14C to the ground state of 14N. In this way, it is observed that at a low-momentum scale of V_(low-k) = 2.1 fm-1, medium-modifications of the nuclear force play an essential role in increasing the lifetime of 14C from a few minutes to an archaeologically long one of 5730 years.
103944970
Nuclear thermodynamics from chiral low-momentum interactions
We investigate the thermodynamic equation of state of isospin-symmetric nuclear matter with microscopic nuclear forces derived within the framework of chiral effective field theory. Two- and three-body nuclear interactions constructed at low-resolution scales form the basis for a perturbative calculation of the finite-temperature equation of state. The nuclear force models and many-body methods are benchmarked against bulk properties of isospin-symmetric nuclear matter at zero temperature, which are found to be well reproduced when chiral nuclear interactions constructed at the lowest resolution scales are employed. The calculations are then extended to finite temperatures, where we focus on the liquid-gas phase transition and the associated critical point. The Maxwell construction is applied to construct the physical equation of state, and the value of the critical temperature is determined to be ${T}_{c}=17.2$\char21{}19.1 MeV, in good agreement with the value extracted from multifragmentation reactions of heavy ions.
17480164
A Hidden Local Field Theory Description of Dileptons in Relativistic Heavy Ion Collisions
Using the notion of “hadronic freedom” inferred from the vector manifestation of hidden local symmetry we argue that, contrary to the commonly held belief, the dileptons measured in relativistic heavy-ion collisions do not carry useful information directly relevant to the spontaneous breaking of chiral symmetry and hence to the mechanism for mass generation of light-quark hadrons. The dileptons emitted from those vector mesons whose masses are shifted by the vacuum change in temperature and/or density are strongly suppressed in the hadronic free region between the chiral restoration point and the “flash point” at which the vector mesons recover ∼ > 90% of their free-space on-shell masses and the full strong coupling strength. The spectral function deduced from the dilepton measurements reflects predominantly those vector mesons decaying at the “flash temperature” Tflash ∼ 120 MeV. Thus, � ≈ + � � ∗
13937403
Hans Bethe: The Nuclear Many Body Problem
We discuss the work of Hans Bethe and others in formulating a theoretical foundation for the nuclear shell model. Written for a general audience, this article describes the evolution from Brueckner's reaction matrix theory to the Moszkowski-Scott separation method and ultimately to the Reference Spectrum method of Bethe, Brandow, and Petschek. We also discuss connections with the recently developed low momentum nucleon-nucleon interactions.
119297098
Chiral Fermi liquid approach to neutron matter
We present a microscopic calculation of the complete quasiparticle interaction, including central as well as noncentral components, in neutron matter from high-precision two- and three-body forces derived within the framework of chiral effective field theory. The contributions from two-nucleon forces are computed in many-body perturbation theory to first and second order (without any simplifying approximations). In addition we include the leading-order one-loop diagrams from the N2LO chiral three-nucleon force, which contribute to all Fermi liquid parameters except those associated with the center-of-mass tensor interaction. The relative-momentum dependence of the quasiparticle interaction is expanded in Legendre polynomials up to L=2. Second-order Pauli blocking and medium polarization effects act coherently in specific channels, namely for the Landau parameters f_1, h_0 and g_0, which results in a dramatic increase in the quasiparticle effective mass as well as a decrease in both the effective tensor force and the neutron matter spin susceptibility. For densities greater than about half nuclear matter saturation density \rho_0, the contributions to the Fermi liquid parameters from the leading-order chiral three-nucleon force scale in all cases approximately linearly with the nucleon density. The largest effect of the three-nucleon force is to generate a strongly repulsive effective interaction in the isotropic spin-independent channel. We show that the leading-order chiral three-nucleon force leads to an increase in the spin susceptibility of neutron matter, but we observe no evidence for a ferromagnetic spin instability in the vicinity of the saturation density \rho_0. This work sets the foundation for future studies of neutron matter response to weak and electromagnetic probes with applications to neutron star structure and evolution.
119273892
Understanding Dilepton Production in Heavy Ion Collisions by Vector Mesons of Different Varieties
A simple schematic model anchored on the notion of hadronic freedom inferred from hidden local symmetry in the vector manifestation, the infinite tower of vector mesons in holographic QCD and "stickiness" of $\pi\pi$ interactions inferred from dispersion relations is used to describe the dileptons produced in relativistic heavy ion collisions at PHENIX/RHIC. It is shown that due to the near "blindness" of dileptons to Brown-Rho scaling, those dileptons with invariant mass less than $m_\rho=770$ MeV come mostly from pion-composites that we interpret as "transient $\rho$'s."
121160071
Evidence for the microscopic formation of mixed-symmetry states from magnetic moment measurements
Using the transient field technique, the magnetic moments of the second excited 2{sup +} states in {sup 92,94}Zr have been measured for the first time. The large positive g factors, g(2{sub 2}{sup +};{sup 92}Zr)=+0.76(50) and g(2{sub 2}{sup +};{sup 94}Zr)=+0.88(27), which are in contrast to the known negative g factors of the 2{sub 1}{sup +} states, are found to be a consequence of weak proton-neutron coupling combined with the Z=40 subshell closure. From their large M1 transition strengths to the 2{sub 1}{sup +} states, in earlier works an assignment to the 2{sub 2}{sup +} states as proton-neutron symmetric and mixed-symmetry states has been made, which are now found to be polarized in their proton-neutron content. This fact allows to identify the underlying microscopic main configurations in the wave functions, which form the building blocks of symmetric and mixed-symmetry states in this region as valence nucleons are added and shell structure changes.
27513544
Three-body forces and the limit of oxygen isotopes.
The limit of neutron-rich nuclei, the neutron drip line, evolves regularly from light to medium-mass nuclei except for a striking anomaly in the oxygen isotopes. This anomaly is not reproduced in shell-model calculations derived from microscopic two-nucleon forces. Here, we present the first microscopic explanation of the oxygen anomaly based on three-nucleon forces that have been established in few-body systems. This leads to repulsive contributions to the interactions among excess neutrons that change the location of the neutron drip line from (28)O to the experimentally observed (24)O. Since the mechanism is robust and general, our findings impact the prediction of the most neutron-rich nuclei and the synthesis of heavy elements in neutron-rich environments.
119487712
Counter terms for low momentum nucleon–nucleon interactions
Abstract There is much current interest in treating low energy nuclear physics using the renormalization group (RG) and effective field theory (EFT). Inspired by this RG-EFT approach, we study a low-momentum nucleon–nucleon (NN) interaction, V low- k , obtained by integrating out the fast modes down to the scale Λ ∼2 fm −1 . Since NN experiments can only determine the effective interaction in this low momentum region, our chief purpose is to find such an interaction for complex nuclei whose typical momenta lie below this scale. In this paper we find that V low- k can be highly satisfactorily accounted for by the counter terms corresponding to a short range effective interaction. The coefficients C n of the power series expansion ∑ C n q n for the counter terms have been accurately determined, and results derived from several meson-exchange NN interaction models are compared. The counter terms are found to be important only for the S, P and D partial waves. Scaling behavior of the counter terms is studied. Finally we discuss the use of these methods for computing shell model matrix elements.
7797374
First direct double-β decay Q-value measurement of 82Se in support of understanding the nature of the neutrino.
In anticipation of results from current and future double-β decay studies, we report a measurement resulting in a (82)Se double-β decay Q value of 2997.9(3) keV, an order of magnitude more precise than the currently accepted value. We also present preliminary results of a calculation of the (82)Se neutrinoless double-β decay nuclear matrix element that corrects in part for the small size of the shell model single-particle space. The results of this work are important for designing next generation double-β decay experiments and for the theoretical interpretations of their observations.
119226065
Chiral three-nucleon forces and bound excited states in neutron-rich oxygen isotopes
We study the spectra of neutron-rich oxygen isotopes based on chiral two- and three-nucleon interactions. First, we benchmark our many-body approach by comparing ground-state energies to coupled-cluster results for the same two-nucleon interaction, with overall good agreement. We then calculate bound excited states in 21, 22, 23O , focusing on the role of three-nucleon forces, in the standard sd shell and an extended $ sdf_{7/2}p_{3/2}$ valence space. Chiral three-nucleon forces provide important one- and two-body contributions between valence neutrons. We find that both these contributions and an extended valence space are necessary to reproduce key signatures of novel shell evolution, such as the N = 14 magic number and the low-lying states in 21O and 23O , which are too compressed with two-nucleon interactions only. For the extended space calculations, this presents first work based on nuclear forces without adjustments. Future work is needed and open questions are discussed.