Chiral Fermi liquid approach to neutron matter

Abstract

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 next-to next-to leading order (N${}^{2}$LO) 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 the nuclear matter saturation density ${\ensuremath{\rho}}_{0}$, 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 ${\ensuremath{\rho}}_{0}$. 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.