Abstract
We extend the prediction range of Pionless Effective Field Theory with an analysis of the ground state of 16O in leading order. To renormalize the theory, we use as input both experimental data and lattice QCD predictions of nuclear observables, which probe the sensitivity of nuclei to increased quark masses. The nuclear many-body Schrödinger equation is solved with the Auxiliary Field Diffusion Monte Carlo method. For the first time in a nuclear quantum Monte Carlo calculation, a linear optimization procedure, which allows us to devise an accurate trial wave function with a large number of variational parameters, is adopted. The method yields a binding energy of 4He which is in good agreement with experiment at physical pion mass and with lattice calculations at larger pion masses. At leading order we do not find any evidence of a 16O state which is stable against breakup into four 4He, although higher-order terms could bind 16O.
Highlights
Establishing a clear path leading from the fundamental theory of strong interactions, namely Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD), to nuclear observables, such as nuclear masses and electroweak transitions, is one of the main goals of modern nuclear theory
To alleviate the sign problem, we have performed unconstrained propagations and studied their convergence pattern. Thanks to these developments, the errors from the Auxiliary Field Diffusion Monte Carlo (AFDMC) calculation are much smaller than the uncertainty originating from the effective field theory (EFT)(π/ ) truncation and the Lattice QCD (LQCD) input
With leading order (LO) EFT(π/ ) low-energy constants (LECs) determined from experiment or LQCD calculations, predictions can be made with AFDMC for the binding energies of 4He and 16O
Summary
Establishing a clear path leading from the fundamental theory of strong interactions, namely Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD), to nuclear observables, such as nuclear masses and electroweak transitions, is one of the main goals of modern nuclear theory. At physical pion mass the experimental 16O binding energy is within the EFT truncation error, being potentially reachable in higher orders. We can conclude that EFT(π/ ) has the elements needed for saturation, and we provide a baseline against which the convergence of EFT(π/ ) in medium-mass nuclei can be judged in future higher-order calculations. At this point, because of their complexity, strictly perturbative NLO and N2LO calculations have been limited to A = 2, 3 [10,11,12,13,14]. At present there is no LQCD data for light nuclei at physical quark masses, so in this case we use experimental data as input.
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