Spin-isospin Channels Research Articles

Uncertainty quantification for neutrino opacities in core-collapse supernovae and neutron star mergers

We perform an extensive study of the correlations between the neutrino-nucleon inverse mean free paths (IMFPs) and the underlying equation of states (EoSs). Strong interaction uncertainties in the neutrino mean free path are investigated in different density regimes. The nucleon effective mass, the nucleon chemical potentials, and the residual interactions in the medium play an important role in determining neutrino-nucleon interactions in a density-dependent manner. We study how the above quantities are constrained by an EoS consistent with (i) nuclear mass measurements, (ii) proton-proton scattering phase shifts, and (iii) neutron star observations. We then study the uncertainties of both the charged current and the neutral current neutrino-nucleon inverse mean free paths due to the variation of these quantities, using Hartree-Fock+random phase approximation method. Finally, we calculate the Pearson correlation coefficients between (i) the EoS-based quantities and the EoS-based quantities; (ii) the EoS-based quantities and the IMFPs; (iii) the IMFPs and the IMFPs. We find a strong impact of residual interactions on neutrino opacity in the spin and spin-isospin channels, which are not well constrained by current nuclear modelings.

ΛΛ and NΞ interactions from lattice QCD near the physical point

The S-wave ΛΛ and NΞ interactions are studied on the basis of the (2+1)-flavor lattice QCD simulations close to the physical point (mπ≃146MeV and mK≃525MeV). Lattice QCD potentials in four different spin-isospin channels are extracted by using the coupled-channel HAL QCD method and are parametrized by analytic functions to calculate the scattering phase shifts. The ΛΛ interaction at low energies shows only a weak attraction, which does not provide a bound or resonant dihyperon. The NΞ interaction in the spin-singlet and isospin-singlet channel is most attractive and lead the NΞ system near unitarity. Relevance to the strangeness = −2 hypernuclei as well as to two-baryon correlations in proton-proton, proton-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus collisions is also discussed.

Multiquark study of exotic open bottom baryonic states

We present a simultaneous study of baryon-meson systems containing a bottom degree of freedom, either as a quark or as an antiquark. This produces two different types of structures: the NB system, subject to quark antisymmetry effects and whose existence would generate explicit exotic states; and the NB¯ system, subject to the coupling to heavy baryon–light meson systems and whose existence would represent a higher Fock space component of the bottom baryon spectrum. Both systems have been studied within the framework of a full-fledged chiral constituent quark model tuned in the description of the baryon and meson spectra and the NN interaction. Although the masses of the constituents are larger than its partners in the charm sector, we do not observe a proliferation of bound states. This is due to the coupled-channel mechanism that governs the dynamics for most spin-isospin channels, and requires, in order to have a bound state, several conditions that are difficult to be met at the same time. Our results point to the existence of a deep NB bound state in the (T)JP=(2)3/2- channel, as a consequence of the reduction of the mass difference between pseudoscalar and vector mesons when the mass of the heavy quark increases. The same effect gives rise to a resonance at threshold in the (T)JP=(0)1/2- channel, the best candidate for an exotic state among the channels that do not contain a Δ isobar. In the NB¯ system, a few channels may lodge molecular or compact hadrons with a five-quark structure, being specially suited the (T)JP=(0)1/2- and (T)JP=(1)5/2- channels.

Landau parameters for energy density functionals generated by local finite-range pseudopotentials

In Landau theory of Fermi liquids, the particle–hole interaction near the Fermi energy in different spin–isospin channels is probed in terms of an expansion over the Legendre polynomials. This provides a useful and efficient way to constrain properties of nuclear energy density functionals in symmetric nuclear matter and finite nuclei. In this study, we present general expressions for Landau parameters corresponding to a two-body central local regularized pseudopotential. We also show results obtained for two recently adjusted NLO and N2LO parametrizations. Such pseudopotentials will be used to determine mean-field and beyond-mean-field properties of paired nuclei across the entire nuclear chart.

Infinite matter properties and zero-range limit of non-relativistic finite-range interactions

We discuss some infinite matter properties of two finite-range interactions widely used for nuclear structure calculations, namely Gogny and M3Y interactions. We show that some useful informations can be deduced for the central, tensor and spin–orbit terms from the spin–isospin channels and the partial wave decomposition of the symmetric nuclear matter equation of state. We show in particular that the central part of the Gogny interaction should benefit from the introduction of a third Gaussian and the tensor parameters of both interactions can be deduced from special combinations of partial waves. We also discuss the fact that the spin–orbit of the M3Y interaction is not compatible with local gauge invariance. Finally, we show that the zero-range limit of both families of interactions coincides with the specific form of the zero-range Skyrme interaction extended to higher momentum orders and we emphasize from this analogy its benefits.

Nuclear density functional theory with a semi-contact 3-body interaction

Theories combining nuclear density functional approach (DFT) and effects beyond the independent particle/quasi-particle limit have attracted much attention recently. In particular, such theories, generically referred as “beyond mean-field” (BMF) seem unavoidable to account for both single-particle effects and complex quantum internal phenomena in nuclear finite many-body nuclear systems. It has been realized recently that BMF theories might lead to specific difficulties when applied within the nuclear DFT context. An example is the appearance of divergences in configuration mixing approaches. A short summary of the difficulties is given here. One source of problem is the use of energy functional of non-integer powers of the density. We show that such dependence can be mimicked by a suitable choice of a three-body interaction. Application on infinite nuclear matter in various spin-isospin channels will be given.

Short-range correlations in nuclei with similarity renormalization group transformations

$\mathbf{Background:}$ Realistic nucleon-nucleon interactions induce short-range correlations in nuclei. To solve the many-body problem unitary transformations like the similarity renormalization group (SRG) are often used to soften the interactions. $\mathbf{Purpose:}$ Two-body densities can be used to illustrate how the SRG eliminates short-range correlations in the wave function. The short-range information can however be recovered by transforming the density operators. $\mathbf{Method:}$ The many-body problem is solved for $^4$He in the no core shell model (NCSM) with SRG transformed AV8' and chiral N3LO interactions. The NCSM wave functions are used to calculate two-body densities with bare and SRG transformed density operators in two-body approximation. $\mathbf{Results:}$ The two-body momentum distributions for AV8' and N3LO have similar high-momentum components up to relative momenta of about $2.5\,\mathrm{fm}^{-1}$, dominated by tensor correlations, but differ in their behavior at higher relative momenta. The contributions of many-body correlations are small for pairs with vanishing pair momentum but not negligible for the momentum distributions integrated over all pair momenta. Many-body correlations are induced by the strong tensor force and lead to a reshuffling of pairs between different spin-isospin channels. $\mathbf{Conclusions:}$ When using the SRG it is essential to use transformed operators for observables sensitive to short-range physics. Back-to-back pairs with vanishing pair momentum are the best tool to study short-range correlations.

Nucleon-antinucleon annihilation at largeNc

Nucleon-antinucleon annihilation in the large $N_c$ limit of QCD in the Witten regime of fixed velocity is considered with a focus on the spin and isospin dependence of the annihilation cross-section. In general, time-reversal and isospin invariance restricts the annihilation cross-section to depend on 6 independent energy-dependent terms. At large $N_c$, a spin-flavor symmetry emerges in the theory that acts to further restrict the dependence of the annihilation cross-section to three of these terms; the other terms amount to $1/N_c$ corrections. Assuming dominance of the leading order terms, several identities are derived that relate annihilation in different spin-isospin channels. A key prediction is that for unpolarized nucleons in Witten kinematics, the proton-antiproton annihilation cross-section should be equal to the proton-antineutron annihilation cross-section up to corrections of relative order $1/N_c$. Unpolarized nucleon-antinucleon annihilation data appears to be consistent with this expectation.

Spin constraints on nuclear energy density functionals

The Gallagher-Moszkowski rule in the spectroscopy of odd-odd nuclei imposes a new spin constraint on the energy functionals for self-consistent mean field theory. The commonly used parametrization of the effective three-body interaction in the Gogny and Skyrme families of energy functionals is ill suited to satisfy the spin constraint. In particular, the Gogny parametrization of the three-body interaction has the spin dependence opposite to that required by the observed spectra. The two-body part has a correct sign, but in combination the rule is violated as often as not. We conclude that a new functional form is needed for the effective three-body interaction that can take into better account the different spin-isospin channels of the interaction.

Single particle potentials of asymmetric nuclear matter in different spin-isospin channels

We investigate the neutron and proton single particle (s.p.) potentials of asymmetric nuclear matter and their isospin dependence in various spin-isospin ST channels within the framework of the Brueckner-Hartree-Fock approach. It is shown that in symmetric nuclear matter, the s.p. potentials in both the isospin-singlet T = 0 channel and isospin-triplet T = 1 channel are essentially attractive, and the magnitudes in the two different channels are roughly the same. In neutron-rich nuclear matter, the isospin-splitting of the proton and neutron s.p. potentials turns out to be mainly determined by the isospin-singlet T = 0 channel contribution which becomes more attractive for the proton and more repulsive for the neutron at higher asymmetries.

Localized form of Fock terms in nuclear covariant density functional theory

In most of the successful versions of covariant density functional theory in nuclei, the Fock terms are not included explicitly, which leads to local functionals and forms the basis of their widespread applicability at present. However, it has serious consequences for the description of Gamow-Teller resonances (GTR) and spin-dipole resonances (SDR) which can only be cured by adding further phenomenological parameters. Relativistic Hartree-Fock models do not suffer from these problems. They can successfully describe the GTR and SDR as well as the isovector part of the Dirac effective mass without any additional parameters. However, they are non-local and require considerable numerical efforts. By the zero-range reduction and the Fierz transformation, a new method is proposed to take into account the Fock terms in local functionals, which retains the simplicity of conventional models and provides proper descriptions of the spin-isospin channels and the Dirac masses.

Universality of Short-Range Nucleon-Nucleon Correlations in Nuclei

We investigate the short-range correlations in light nuclei. The highly correlated many-body states are obtained with an explicitly correlated basis which enables us to get a precise solution of a many-body Schrodinger equation for a realistic interaction. We show two-body density distributions for the different spin-isospin channels calculated from three- and four-body states to investigate the short-range correlations between nucleon pairs. At distances below 1 fm a universal behavior is found which does not depend on the many-body states. The universality is also seen in high momentum components of the two-body momentum distributions.

A functional renormalisation group and a few-nucleon problem

A functional renormalisation group is applied to the few-nucleon problem. We have considered the average effective action with exact SU(4) symmetry and derived the flow equations which have been used to calculate the deuteron–deuteron scattering lengths in the singlet and quintet spin–isospin channels.

Continuity equation and local gauge invariance for the N3LO nuclear energy density functionals

Background: The next-to-next-to-next-to-leading order (N3LO) nuclear energy density functional extends the standard Skyrme functional with new terms depending on higher-order derivatives of densities, introduced to gain better precision in the nuclear many-body calculations. A thorough study of the transformation properties of the functional with respect to different symmetries is required, as a step preliminary to the adjustment of the coupling constants. Purpose: Determine to which extent the presence of higher-order derivatives in the functional can be compatible with the continuity equation. In particular, to study the relations between the validity of the continuity equation and invariance of the functional under gauge transformations. Methods: Derive conditions for the validity of the continuity equation in the framework of time-dependent density functional theory. The conditions apply separately to the four spin-isospin channels of the one-body density matrix. Results: We obtained four sets of constraints on the coupling constants of the N3LO energy density functional that guarantee the validity of the continuity equation in all spin-isospin channels. In particular, for the scalar-isoscalar channel, the constraints are the same as those resulting from imposing the standard U(1) local-gauge-invariance conditions. Conclusions: Validity of the continuity equation in the four spin-isospin channels is equivalent to the local-gauge invariance of the energy density functional. For vector and isovector channels, such validity requires the invariance of the functional under local rotations in the spin and isospin spaces.

Universality of short-range nucleon-nucleon correlations

Short-range correlations between nucleon pairs in different spin-isospin channels are investigated for light nuclei using the Argonne V8' interaction. At distances below 1 fm a universal behavior is found for the deuteron, 3H, 3He and for ground and first excited states in 4He. This behavior in coordinate space is reflected by a universal behavior for the high-momentum components in momentum space. The universality indicates that a pairwise renormalization is possible in order to obtain a universal effective two-body interaction that does not scatter to high momentum states. The exact two-body densities are compared with those obtained using the unitary correlation operator method with simple trial wave functions. The effect of three-body correlations due to the tensor force on the two-body densities is discussed.

Strangeness −2 two-baryon systems

We derive strangeness −2 baryon–baryon interactions from a chiral constituent quark model including the full set of scalar mesons. The model has been tuned in the strangeness 0 and −1 two-baryon systems, providing parameter free predictions for the strangeness −2 case. We calculate elastic and inelastic NΞ and ΛΛ cross sections which are consistent with the existing experimental data. We also calculate the two-body scattering lengths for the different spin–isospin channels.

The Negele–Vautherin density-matrix expansion applied to the Gogny force

We use the Negele–Vautherin density-matrix expansion to derive a quasi-local density functional for the description of systems of fermions interacting with short-range interactions composed of arbitrary finite-range central, spin–orbit and tensor components. Terms that are absent in the original Negele–Vautherin approach owing to the angle averaging of the density matrix are fixed by employing a gauge invariance condition. We obtain the Kohn–Sham interaction energies in all spin–isospin channels, including the exchange terms, expressed as functions of the local densities and their derivatives up to second (next to leading) order. We illustrate the method by determining the coupling constants of the Skyrme functional or Skyrme force that correspond to the finite-range Gogny central force. The resulting self-consistent solutions reproduce the Gogny-force binding energies and radii within the precision of 1–2%.

Spin and spin-isospin instabilities and Landau parameters of Skyrme interactions with tensor correlations

The Landau parameters of Skyrme interactions in the spin and spin-isospin channels are studied using various Skyrme effective interactions with and without tensor correlations. We focus on the role of the tensor terms on the spin and spin-isospin instabilities that can occur in nuclear matter above saturation density. We point out that these instabilities are realized in nuclear matter at the critical density of about two times the saturation density for all the adopted parameter sets. The critical density is shown to be very much dependent not only on the choice of the Skyrme parameter set, but also on the inclusion of the tensor terms.

Decomposition of the equation of state of asymmetric nuclear matter into different spin-isospin channels

We investigate the equation of state of asymmetric nuclear matter and its isospin dependence in various spin-isospin ST channels within the framework of the Brueckner–Hartree–Fock approach extended to include a microscopic three-body force (TBF). It is shown that the potential energy per nucleon in the isospin-singlet T = 0 channel is mainly determined by the contribution from the tensor SD coupled channel. At high densities, the TBF effect on the isospin-triplet T = 1 channel contribution turns out to be much larger than that on the T = 0 channel contribution. At low densities around and below the normal nuclear matter density, the isospin dependence is found to come essentially from the isospin-singlet SD channel and the isospin-triplet T = 1 component is almost independent of isospin asymmetry. As the density increases, the T = 1 channel contribution becomes sensitive to the isospin asymmetry and at high enough densities its isospin dependence may even become more pronounced than that of the T = 0 contribution. The present results may provide some microscopic constraints for improving effective nucleon-nucleon interactions in a nuclear medium and for constructing new functionals of effective nucleon-nucleon interaction based on microscopic many-body theories.

FOUR-BODY CALCULATION FOR EXCITED STATES OF 4HE

Four-body calculations with explicitly correlated Gaussian bases are performed for excited states of 4 He . All the levels below E x =26 MeV are reproduced reasonably well using realistic potentials. An analysis is made to show how the [Formula: see text] state becomes a resonance but those having almost the same structure as this state in different spin-isospin channels are not observed as resonances. The calculation of spectroscopic amplitudes, nucleon decay widths, and spin-dipole transition strengths demonstrates that the [Formula: see text] state and the three lowest-lying negative-parity states with 0- and 2- have 3 H +p and 3 He +n cluster configurations, leading to the interpretation that these negative-parity states are the inversion-doublet partners of the [Formula: see text] state.