Neutron Cooper Pairs Research Articles

Subshell gaps and onsets of collectivity from proton and neutron pairing gap correlations

Throughout the nuclear chart, particle-hole correlations give rise to giant resonances and, together with the proton–neutron interaction, deformation and rotational bands. In order to shed light on many-body correlations in open-shell nuclei, I explore macroscopic properties that could manifest from the collective behaviour of protons and neutrons. Intuitively, the correlation of proton and neutron Cooper pairs can be inferred from the respective pairing gaps, that can precisely be extracted from the AME 2020 atomic mass evaluation through odd-even atomic mass differences. This work shows that the combination of large and close-lying proton and neutron pairing gaps is sensitive to onsets of collectivity and subshell gaps in superfluid nuclei, away from major shell closures. Trends of reduced transition probabilities or B(E2) values — which describe the collective overlap between the wave functions of initial and final nuclear states — are revealed in overall agreement with data. Specially interesting is the peak of collectivity in the tin isotopes at 110Sn, instead of at midshell, as expected by large-scale shell-model calculations; a situation that has astounded the nuclear physics community for quite some time.

Pion-mediated Cooper pairing of neutrons: beyond the bare vertex approximation

In some quantum many particle systems, the fermions could form Cooper pairs by exchanging intermediate bosons. This then drives a superconducting phase transition or a superfluid transition. Such transitions should be theoretically investigated by using proper non-perturbative methods. Here we take the neutron superfluid transition as an example and study the Cooper pairing of neutrons mediated by neutral π-mesons in the low-density region of a neutron matter. We perform a non-perturbative analysis of the neutron–meson coupling and compute the pairing gap Δ, the critical density ρ c , and the critical temperature T c by solving the Dyson–Schwinger equation of the neutron propagator. We first carry out calculations under the widely used bare vertex approximation and then incorporate the contribution of the lowest-order vertex correction. This vertex correction is not negligible even at low densities and its importance is further enhanced as the density increases. The transition critical line on density-temperature plane obtained under the bare vertex approximation is substantially changed after including the vertex correction. These results indicate that the vertex corrections play a significant role and need to be seriously taken into account.

Origin of Strong Magnetic Fields of Magnetars

Since there is 3 P 2 neutron superfluid in neutron star interior, it can be treated as a system of magnetic dipoles. Under the presence of background magnetic field, the magnetic dipoles tend to align in the same direction. When the temperature is lower than 10 7 K, the strong magnetic fields of the magnetars may originate from the induced magnetic moment of the 3 P 2 neutron Cooper pairs in the anisotropic neutron superfluid. And this gives a convenient explanation of the strong magnetic field of magnetars.

Self-similarity relations for cooling superfluid neutron stars

We consider models of cooling neutron stars with nucleon cores which possess moderately strong triplet-state superfluidity of neutrons. When the internal temperature drops below the maximum of the critical temperature over the core, $T_{\rm C}$, this superfluidity sets in. It produces a neutrino outburst due to Cooper pairing of neutrons which greatly accelerates the cooling. We show that the cooling of the star with internal temperature $T$ within $0.6\,T_{\rm C} \lesssim T \leq T_{\rm C}$ is described by analytic self-similar relations. A measurement of the effective surface temperature of the star and its decline, supplemented by assumptions on star's mass, radius and composition of heat-blanketing envelope, allows one to construct a family of cooling models parametrized by the value of $T_{\rm C}$. Each model reconstructs cooling history of the star including its neutrino emission level before neutron superfluidity onset and the intensity of Cooper pairing neutrinos. The results are applied to interpret the observations of the neutron star in the Cassiopeia A supernova remnant.

Asymptotic form of neutron Cooper pairs in weakly bound nuclei

Asymptotic form of neutron Cooper pair penetrating to the exterior of nuclear surface is investigated with the Bogoliubov theory for the superfluid Fermions. Based on a two-particle Schr\"{o}dinger equation governing the Cooper pair wave function and systematic studies for both weakly bound and stable nuclei, the Cooper pair is shown to be spatially correlated even in the asymptotic large distance limit, and the penetration length of the pair condensate is revealed to be universally governed by the two-neutron separation energy $S_{2n}$ and the di-neutron mass $2m$.

Nuclear field theory predictions for 11Li and 12Be: Shedding light on the origin of pairing in nuclei

Recent data resulting from studies of two-nucleon transfer reaction on 11Li, analyzed through a unified nuclear-structure-direct-reaction theory have provided strong direct as well as indirect confirmation, through the population of the first excited state of 9Li and of the observation of a strongly quenched ground state transition, of the prediction that phonon-mediated pairing interaction is the main mechanism binding the neutron halo of the 8.5-ms-lived 11Li nucleus. In other words, the ground state of 11Li can be viewed as a neutron Cooper pair bound to the 9Li core, mainly through the exchange of collective vibration of the core and of the pigmy resonance arizing from the sloshing back and forth of the neutron halo against the protons of the core, the mean field leading to unbound two-particle states, a situation essentially not altered by the bare nucleon-nucleon interaction acting between the halo neutrons. Two-neutron pick-up data, together with (t, p) data on 7Li, suggest the existence of a pairing vibrational band based on 9Li, whose members can be excited with the help of inverse kinematic experiments as was done in the case of 11Li(p, t)9Li reaction. The deviation from harmonicity can provide insight into the workings of medium polarization effects on Cooper-pair nuclear pairing, let alone specific information concering the “rigidity” of the N = 6 shell closure. Further information concerning these questions is provided by the predicted absolute differential cross sections σabs associated with the reactions 12Be(p, t)10Be(g.s.) and 12Be(p, t)10Be(pv) (≈10Be(p, t)8Be(g.s.)). In particular, concerning this last reaction, predictions of σabs can change by an order of magnitude depending on whether the halo properties associated with the d5/2 orbital are treated selfconsistently in calculating the ground state correlations of the (pair removal) mode, or not.

THE COOLING OF THE CASSIOPEIA A NEUTRON STAR AS A PROBE OF THE NUCLEAR SYMMETRY ENERGY AND NUCLEAR PASTA

X-ray observations of the neutron star in the Cas A supernova remnant over the past decade suggest the star is undergoing a rapid drop in surface temperature of $\approx$ $2-5.5\%$. One explanation suggests the rapid cooling is triggered by the onset of neutron superfluidity in the core of the star, causing enhanced neutrino emission from neutron Cooper pair breaking and formation (PBF). Using consistent neutron star crust and core equations of state (EOSs) and compositions, we explore the sensitivity of this interpretation to the density dependence of the symmetry energy $L$ of the EOS used, and to the presence of enhanced neutrino cooling in the bubble phases of crustal "nuclear pasta". Modeling cooling over a conservative range of neutron star masses and envelope compositions, we find $L\lesssim70$ MeV, competitive with terrestrial experimental constraints and other astrophysical observations. For masses near the most likely mass of $M\gtrsim 1.65 M_{\odot}$, the constraint becomes more restrictive $35\lesssim L\lesssim 55$ MeV. The inclusion of the bubble cooling processes decreases the cooling rate of the star during the PBF phase, matching the observed rate only when $L\lesssim45$ MeV, taking all masses into consideration, corresponding to neutron star radii $\lesssim 11$km.

Dineutron correlations and BCS–BEC crossover in nuclear matter with the Gogny pairing force

The dineutron correlations and the crossover from superfluidity of neutron Cooper pairs in the $^1S_0$ pairing channel to Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) of dineutron pairs in both symmetric and neutron matter are studied within the relativistic Hartree-Bogoliubov theory, with the effective interaction PK1 of the relativistic mean-field approach in the particle-hole channel and the finite-range Gogny force in the particle-particle channel. The influence of the pairing strength on the behaviors of dineutron correlations is investigated. It is found that the neutron pairing gaps at the Fermi surface from three adopted Gogny interactions are smaller at low densities than the one from the bare nucleon-nucleon interaction Bonn-B potential. From the normal (anomalous) density distribution functions and the density correlation function, it is confirmed that a true dineutron BEC state does not appear in nuclear matter. In the cases of the Gogny interactions, the most BEC-like state may appear when the neutron Fermi momentum $k_{Fn}\thicksim0.3 \rm{fm^{-1}}$. Moreover, based on the newly developed criterion for several characteristic quantities within the relativistic framework, the BCS-BEC crossover is supposed to realize in a revised density region with $k_{Fn}\in[0.15,0.63] \rm{fm^{-1}}$ in nuclear matter.

Pair correlation and pair collectivity in neutron-rich nuclei

We describe the neutron Cooper pair, the pair vibrational states and the associated two-neutron transfer strength by applying the Skyrme–Hartree–Fock–Bogoliubov mean-field model and the quasiparticle random phase approximation to neutron-rich Sn isotopes. The wave function of the Cooper pair exhibits a strong spatial correlation favoring short relative distances smaller than a few fm, in contrast to the case of the single-j Cooper pair. The model also predicts an anomalous pair vibration in neutron-rich isotopes beyond the N = 82 magic number, which originates from the weak binding of the last neutrons.

BCS-BEC crossover in nuclear matter with the relativistic Hartree-Bogoliubov theory

Based on the relativistic Hartree-Bogoliubov theory, the influence of the pairing interaction strength on the di-neutron correlations and the crossover from superfluidity of neutron Cooper pairs in the $^{1}S_{0}$ channel to Bose-Einstein condensation of di-neutron pairs is systematically investigated in the nuclear matter. The bare nucleon-nucleon interaction Bonn-B is taken in the particle-particle channel with an effective factor to simulate the medium effects and take into account the possible ambiguity of pairing force, and the effective interaction PK1 is used in the particle-hole channel. If the effective factor is larger than 1.10, a di-neutron BEC state appears in the low-density limit, and if it is smaller than 0.85, the neutron Cooper pairs are found totally in the weak coupling BCS region. The reference values of several characteristic quantities which characterize the BCS-BEC crossover are obtained respectively from the dimensionless parameter $1/(k_{\rm Fn}a)$ with $a$ the scattering length and $k_{\rm{Fn}}$ the neutron Fermi momentum, the zero-momentum transfer density correlation function D(0) and the effective chemical potential $\nu_{\rm n}$.

A possible mechanism for magnetar soft X-ray/γ-ray emission

Once the energies of electrons near the Fermi surface obviously exceed the threshold energy of the inverse β decay, electron capture (EC) dominates inside the magnetar. Since the maximal binding energy of the 3P2 neutron Cooper pair is only about 0.048 MeV, the outgoing high-energy neutrons (Ek(n) > 60 MeV) created by the EC can easily destroy the 3P2 neutron Cooper pairs through the interaction of nuclear force. In the anisotropic neutron superfluid, each 3P2 neutron Cooper pair has magnetic energy 2μnB in the applied magnetic field B, where μn = 0.966 × 10−23 erg·G−1 is the absolute value of the neutron abnormal magnetic moment. While being destroyed by the high-energy EC neutrons, the magnetic moments of the 3P2 Cooper pairs are no longer arranged in the paramagnetic direction, and the magnetic energy is released. This released energy can be transformed into thermal energy. Only a small fraction of the generated thermal energy is transported from the interior to the surface by conduction, and then it is radiated in the form of thermal photons from the surface. After highly efficient modulation within the star's magnetosphere, the thermal surface emission is shaped into a spectrum of soft X-rays/γ-rays with the observed characteristics of magnetars. By introducing related parameters, we calculate the theoretical luminosities of magnetars. The calculation results agree well with the observed parameters of magnetars.

Rapid Cooling of the Neutron Star in Cassiopeia A Triggered by Neutron Superfluidity in Dense Matter

We propose that the observed cooling of the neutron star in Cassiopeia A is due to enhanced neutrino emission from the recent onset of the breaking and formation of neutron Cooper pairs in the (3)P(2) channel. We find that the critical temperature for this superfluid transition is ≃0.5×10(9) K. The observed rapidity of the cooling implies that protons were already in a superconducting state with a larger critical temperature. This is the first direct evidence that superfluidity and superconductivity occur at supranuclear densities within neutron stars. Our prediction that this cooling will continue for several decades at the present rate can be tested by continuous monitoring of this neutron star.

Relativistic description of BCS–BEC crossover in nuclear matter

We study theoretically the di-neutron spatial correlations and the crossover from superfluidity of neutron Cooper pairs in the S01 pairing channel to Bose–Einstein condensation (BEC) of di-neutron pairs for both symmetric and neutron matter in the microscopic relativistic pairing theory. We take the bare nucleon–nucleon interaction Bonn-B in the particle–particle channel and the effective interaction PK1 of the relativistic mean-field approach in the particle–hole channel. It is found that the spatial structure of neutron Cooper pair wave function evolves continuously from BCS-type to BEC-type as density decreases. We see a strong concentration of the probability density revealed for the neutron pairs in the fairly small relative distance around 1.5 fm and the neutron Fermi momentum kFn∈[0.6,1.0] fm−1. However, from the effective chemical potential and the quasiparticle excitation spectrum, there is no evidence for the appearance of a true BEC state of neutron pairs at any density. The most BEC-like state may appear at kFn∼0.2 fm−1 by examining the density correlation function. From the coherence length and the probability distribution of neutron Cooper pairs as well as the ratio between the neutron pairing gap and the kinetic energy at the Fermi surface, some features of the BCS–BEC crossover are seen in the density regions, 0.05 fm−1<kFn<0.7(0.75) fm−1, for the symmetric nuclear (pure neutron) matter.

Correlation functions for a di-neutron condensate in asymmetric nuclear matter

Recent calculations with an effective isospin-dependent contact interaction show the possibility of the crossover from superfluidity of neutron Cooper pairs in the ${^{1}\mathrm{S}}_{0}$ pairing channel to Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) of di-neutron bound states in dilute nuclear matter. The density and spin correlation functions are calculated for a di-neutron condensate in asymmetric nuclear matter with the aim of finding the possible features of the BCS-BEC crossover. It is shown that the zero-momentum transfer spin correlation function satisfies the sum rule at zero temperature. In symmetric nuclear matter, the density correlation function changes sign at low momentum transfer across the BCS-BEC transition, and this feature can be considered as a signature of the crossover. At finite isospin asymmetry, this criterion gives too large a value for the critical asymmetry ${\ensuremath{\alpha}}_{c}^{d}~0.9$, at which the BEC state is quenched. Therefore, it can be trusted for the description of the density-driven BCS-BEC crossover of neutron pairs only at small isospin asymmetry. This result generalizes the conclusion of the study in Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 090402 (2005), where the change of sign of the density correlation function at low momentum transfer in two-component quantum fermionic atomic gas with the balanced populations of fermions of different species was considered as an unambiguous signature of the BCS-BEC transition.

Nucleon superfluidity versus thermal states of isolated and transiently accreting neutron stars

The properties of superdense matter in neutron star (NS) cores control NS thermal states by affecting the efficiency of neutrino emission from NS interiors. To probe these properties we confront the theory of thermal evolution of NSs with observations of their thermal radiation. Our observational basis includes cooling isolated NSs (INSs) and NSs in quiescent states of soft X-ray transients (SXTs). We find that the data on SXTs support the conclusions obtained from the analysis of INSs: strong proton superfluidity with T cp max ≳109 K should be present, while mild neutron superfluidity with T cn max ≈2×(108−−109) K is ruled out in the outer NS core. Here T cn max and T cp max are the maximum values of the density dependent critical temperatures of neutrons and protons. The data on SXTs suggest also that: (i) cooling of massive NSs is enhanced by neutrino emission more powerful than the emission due to Cooper pairing of neutrons; (ii) mild neutron superfluidity, if available, might be present only in inner cores of massive NSs. In the latter case SXTs would exhibit dichotomy, i.e. very similar SXTs may evolve to very different thermal states.

Spatial structure of neutron Cooper pair in low density uniform matter

We analyze spatial structure of the neutron Cooper pair in superfluid low-density uniform matter by means of BCS calculations employing a bare force and the effective Gogny interaction. It is shown that the Cooper pair exhibits a strong spatial di-neutron correlation in a wide range of neutron density $\rho/\rho_0\approx 10^{-4}-0.5$. This feature is related to the crossover behavior between the pairing of the weak coupling BCS type and the Bose-Einstein condensation of bound neutron pairs. We also show that the zero-range delta interaction can describe the spatial structure of the neutron Cooper pair if the density dependent interaction strength and the cut-off energy are appropriately chosen. Parameterizations of the density-dependent delta interaction satisfying this condition are discussed.

Minimal models of cooling neutron stars with accreted envelopes

We study the minimal cooling scenario of superfluid neutron stars with nucleon cores, where the direct Urca process is forbidden and the enhanced cooling is produced by the neutrino emission due to Cooper pairing of neutrons. Extending our previous consideration (Gusakov et al. 2004a), we include the effects of accreted envelopes of light elements. We employ phenomenological density-dependent critical temperatures T_{cp}(\rho) and T_{cnt}(\rho) of singlet-state proton and triplet-state neutron pairing in a stellar core, as well as the critical temperature T_{cns}(\rho) of singlet-state neutron pairing in a stellar crust. We show that the presence of accreted envelopes simplifies the interpretation of observations of thermal radiation from isolated neutron stars in the scenario of Gusakov et al. (2004a) and widens the class of models for nucleon superfluidity in neutron star interiors consistent with the observations.

Isospin asymmetry and type-I superconductivity in neutron star matter

It has been argued by Buckley et. al.(Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 151102, 2004) that nuclear matter is a type-I rather than a type-II superconductor. The suggested mechanism is a strong interaction between neutron and proton Cooper pairs, which arises from an assumed U(2) symmetry of the effective potential, which is supposed to originate in isospin symmetry of the underlying nuclear interactions. To test this claim, we perform an explicit mean-field calculation of the effective potential of the Cooper pairs in a model with a simple four-point pairing interaction. In the neutron star context, matter is very neutron rich with less than 10% protons, so there is no neutron-proton pairing. We find that under these conditions our model shows no interaction between proton Cooper pairs and neutron Cooper pairs at the mean-field level. We estimate the leading contribution beyond mean field and find that it is is small and attractive at weak coupling.

The cooling of Akmal--Pandharipande--Ravenhall neutron star models

We study the cooling of superfluid neutron stars whose cores consist of nucleon matter with the Akmal-Pandharipande-Ravenhall equation of state. This equation of state opens the powerful direct Urca process of neutrino emission in the interior of most massive neutron stars. Extending our previous studies (Gusakov et al. 2004a, Kaminker et al. 2005), we employ phenomenological density-dependent critical temperatures T_{cp}(\rho) of strong singlet-state proton pairing (with the maximum T_{cp}^{max} \sim 7e9 K in the outer stellar core) and T_{cnt}(\rho) of moderate triplet-state neutron pairing (with the maximum T_{cnt}^{max} \sim 6e8 K in the inner core). Choosing properly the position of T_{cnt}^{max} we can obtain a representative class of massive neutron stars whose cooling is intermediate between the cooling enhanced by the neutrino emission due to Cooper pairing of neutrons in the absence of the direct Urca process and the very fast cooling provided by the direct Urca process non-suppressed by superfluidity.

Pycnonuclear reactions in dense stellar matter

We discuss pycnonuclear burning of highly exotic atomic nuclei in deep crusts of neutron stars, at densities up to 1e13 g/cc. As an application, we consider pycnonuclear burning of matter accreted on a neutron star in a soft X-ray transient (SXT, a compact binary containing a neutron star and a low-mass companion). The energy released in this burning, while the matter sinks into the stellar crust under the weight of newly accreted material, is sufficient to warm up the star and initiate neutrino emission in its core. The surface thermal radiation of the star in quiescent states becomes dependent of poorly known equation of state (EOS) of supranuclear matter in the stellar core, which gives a method to explore this EOS. Four qualitatively different model EOSs are tested against observations of SXTs. They imply different levels of the enhancement of neutrino emission in massive neutron stars by (1) the direct Urca process in nucleon/hyperon matter; (2) pion condensates; (3) kaon condensates; (4) Cooper pairing of neutrons in nucleon matter with the forbidden direct Urca process. A low level of the thermal quiescent emission of two SXTs, SAX J1808.4-3658 and Cen X-4, contradicts model (4). Observations of SXTs test the same physics of dense matter as observations of thermal radiation from cooling isolated neutron stars, but the data on SXTs are currently more conclusive.