We extend the formalism of self-consistent Green's function theory to include three-body interactions and apply it to isotopic chains around oxygen for the first time. The third-order algebraic ...diagrammatic construction equations for two-body Hamiltonians can be exploited upon defining system-dependent one- and two-body interactions coming from the three-body force, and, correspondingly, dropping interaction-reducible diagrams. The Koltun sum rule for the total binding energy acquires a correction due to the added three-body interaction. This formalism is then applied to study chiral two- and three-nucleon forces evolved to low momentum cutoffs. The binding energies of nitrogen, oxygen, and fluorine isotopes are reproduced with good accuracy and demonstrate the predictive power of this approach. Leading order three-nucleon forces consistently bring results close to the experiment for all neutron rich isotopes considered and reproduce the correct driplines for oxygen and nitrogen. The formalism introduced also allows us to calculate form factors for nucleon transfer on doubly magic systems.
We derive ab initio optical potentials from self-consistent Green's function theory and compute the elastic scattering of neutrons off oxygen and calcium isotopes. The comparison with scattering data ...is satisfactory at low scattering energies. The method is benchmarked against the no-core shell model with continuum calculations, showing that virtual excitations of the target are crucial to predict proper fragmentation and absorption at higher energies. This is a significant step toward deriving optical potentials for medium mass nuclei and complex many-body systems in general.
The recently confirmed neutron-shell closure at N=32 has been investigated for the first time below the magic proton number Z=20 with mass measurements of the exotic isotopes (52,53)K, the latter ...being the shortest-lived nuclide investigated at the online mass spectrometer ISOLTRAP. The resulting two-neutron separation energies reveal a 3 MeV shell gap at N=32, slightly lower than for 52Ca, highlighting the doubly magic nature of this nuclide. Skyrme-Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov and ab initio Gorkov-Green function calculations are challenged by the new measurements but reproduce qualitatively the observed shell effect.
The dominant decay mode of atomic nuclei is beta decay (β-decay), a process that changes a neutron into a proton (and vice versa). This decay offers a window to physics beyond the standard model, and ...is at the heart of microphysical processes in stellar explosions and element synthesis in the Universe1–3. However, observed β-decay rates in nuclei have been found to be systematically smaller than for free neutrons: this 50-year-old puzzle about the apparent quenching of the fundamental coupling constant by a factor of about 0.75 (ref. 4) is without a first-principles theoretical explanation. Here, we demonstrate that this quenching arises to a large extent from the coupling of the weak force to two nucleons as well as from strong correlations in the nucleus. We present state-of-the-art computations of β-decays from light- and medium-mass nuclei to 100Sn by combining effective field theories of the strong and weak forces5 with powerful quantum many-body techniques6–8. Our results are consistent with experimental data and have implications for heavy element synthesis in neutron star mergers9–11 and predictions for the neutrino-less double-β-decay3, where an analogous quenching puzzle is a source of uncertainty in extracting the neutrino mass scale12.The difference between the β-decay rate predicted for free neutrons and that measured in real nuclei is explained by first-principles calculations to arise from strong correlations and the weak-force coupling between nucleons.
Differential cross sections of isoscalar and isovector spin-M1 (0(+)→1(+)) transitions are measured using high-energy-resolution proton inelastic scattering at E(p)=295 MeV on (24)Mg, (28)Si, (32)S, ...and (36)Ar at 0°-14°. The squared spin-M1 nuclear transition matrix elements are deduced from the measured differential cross sections by applying empirically determined unit cross sections based on the assumption of isospin symmetry. The ratios of the squared nuclear matrix elements accumulated up to E(x)=16 MeV compared to a shell-model prediction are 1.01(9) for isoscalar and 0.61(6) for isovector spin-M1 transitions, respectively. Thus, no quenching is observed for isoscalar spin-M1 transitions, while the matrix elements for isovector spin-M1 transitions are quenched by an amount comparable with the analogous Gamow-Teller transitions on those target nuclei.
The first practical method to evolve many-body nuclear forces to softened form using the similarity renormalization group in a harmonic oscillator basis is demonstrated. When applied to 4He ...calculations, the two- and three-body oscillator matrix elements yield rapid convergence of the ground-state energy with a small net contribution of the induced four-body force.
Ab initio calculations of bulk nuclear properties (ground-state energies, root-mean-square charge radii and charge density distributions) are presented for seven complete isotopic chains around ...calcium, from argon to chromium. Calculations are performed within the Gorkov self-consistent Green’s function approach at second order and make use of two state-of-the-art two- plus three-nucleon Hamiltonians,
NN
+
3
N
(lnl)
and NNLO
sat
. An overall good agreement with available experimental data is found, in particular for differential energies (charge radii) when the former (latter) interaction is employed. Remarkably, neutron magic numbers
N
=
28
,
32
,
34
emerge and evolve following experimental trends. In contrast, pairing gaps are systematically underestimated. General features of the isotopic dependence of charge radii are also reproduced, as well as charge density distributions. A deterioration of the theoretical description is observed for certain nuclei and ascribed to the inefficient account of (static) quadrupole correlations in the present many-body truncation scheme. In order to resolve these limitations, we advocate the extension of the formalism towards incorporating breaking of rotational symmetry or, alternatively, performing a stochastic sampling of the self-energy.