Nuclear level densities and their dependence on pairing and angular momentum

Abstract

Accurate knowledge of the nuclear level density (NLD) is primordial for the description of neutron capture processes and nucleosynthesis in astrophysics. Surprisingly, very little is known about the angular momentum dependence of the NLD. By combining a recently developed quantum Monte Carlo aglorithm with a new projection technique, we can evaluate symmetry-projected level densities for specific parity and angular momentum. Altough the method remains restricted to seniority-conserving interactions, due to the sign problem, it does provide interesting results for angular momentum projected nuclear level densities, particularly in the region where a pairing phase transition might occur.