Structure of the Lightest Tin Isotopes Morris, T D; Simonis, J; Stroberg, S R ...
Physical review letters,
2018-Apr-13, Volume:
120, Issue:
15
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
We link the structure of nuclei around ^{100}Sn, the heaviest doubly magic nucleus with equal neutron and proton numbers (N=Z=50), to nucleon-nucleon (NN) and three-nucleon (NNN) forces constrained ...by data of few-nucleon systems. Our results indicate that ^{100}Sn is doubly magic, and we predict its quadrupole collectivity. We present precise computations of ^{101}Sn based on three-particle-two-hole excitations of ^{100}Sn, and we find that one interaction accurately reproduces the small splitting between the lowest J^{π}=7/2^{+} and 5/2^{+} states.
We derive and compute effective valence-space shell-model interactions from ab initio coupled-cluster theory and apply them to open-shell and neutron-rich oxygen and carbon isotopes. Our shell-model ...interactions are based on nucleon-nucleon and three-nucleon forces from chiral effective-field theory. We compute the energies of ground and low-lying states, and find good agreement with experiment. In particular, our computed 2(+) states are consistent with N = 14,16 shell closures in (22,24)O, and a weaker N=14 shell closure in (20)C. We find good agreement between our coupled-cluster effective-interaction results with those obtained from standard single-reference coupled-cluster calculations for up to eight valence neutrons.
We compute the charge radii and ground-state energies of even-mass neon and magnesium isotopes from neutron number N=8 to the dripline. Our calculations are based on nucleon-nucleon and three-nucleon ...potentials from chiral effective field theory that include Δ isobars. These potentials yield an accurate saturation point and symmetry energy of nuclear matter. We use the coupled-cluster method and start from an axially symmetric reference state. Binding energies and two-neutron separation energies largely agree with data, and the dripline in neon is accurate. The computed charge radii are accurate for many isotopes where data exist. Finer details, such as isotope shifts, however, are not accurately reproduced. These chiral potentials indicate a subshell closure at N=14 for the radii (but not for two-neutron separation energies) and a decrease in charge radii at N=8 (observed in neon and predicted for magnesium). They yield a continued increase of charge radii as neutrons are added beyond N=14 yet underestimate the large increase at N=20 in magnesium.
We employ interactions from chiral effective field theory and compute the binding energies and low-lying excitations of calcium isotopes with the coupled-cluster method. Effects of three-nucleon ...forces are included phenomenologically as in-medium two-nucleon interactions, and the coupling to the particle continuum is taken into account using a Berggren basis. The computed ground-state energies and the low-lying J(π) = 2+ states for the isotopes (42,48,50,52)Ca are in good agreement with data, and we predict the excitation energy of the first J(π) = 2+ state in (54)Ca at 1.9 MeV, displaying only a weak subshell closure. In the odd-mass nuclei (53,55,61)Ca we find that the positive parity states deviate strongly from the naive shell model.
We use coupled-cluster theory and nuclear interactions from chiral effective field theory to compute the nuclear matrix element for the neutrinoless double-$\beta$ decay of $^{48}$Ca. Benchmarks with ...the no-core shell model in several light nuclei inform us about the accuracy of our approach. For $^{48}$Ca we find a relatively small matrix element. We also compute the nuclear matrix element for the two-neutrino double-$\beta$ decay of $^{48}$Ca with a quenching factor deduced from two-body currents in recent ab initio calculation of the Ikeda sum rule in $^{48}$Ca Gysbers et al., Nat. Phys. 15, 428 (2019).
We optimize the nucleon-nucleon interaction from chiral effective field theory at next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO). The resulting new chiral force NNLO(opt) yields χ(2)≈1 per degree of freedom ...for laboratory energies below approximately 125 MeV. In the A=3, 4 nucleon systems, the contributions of three-nucleon forces are smaller than for previous parametrizations of chiral interactions. We use NNLO(opt) to study properties of key nuclei and neutron matter, and we demonstrate that many aspects of nuclear structure can be understood in terms of this nucleon-nucleon interaction, without explicitly invoking three-nucleon forces.
We optimize chiral interactions at next-to-next-to leading order to observables in two- and three-nucleon systems and compute Gamow-Teller transitions in 14C and (22,24)O using consistent two-body ...currents. We compute spectra of the daughter nuclei 14N and (22,24)F via an isospin-breaking coupled-cluster technique, with several predictions. The two-body currents reduce the Ikeda sum rule, corresponding to a quenching factor q2≈0.84-0.92 of the axial-vector coupling. The half-life of 14C depends on the energy of the first excited 1+ state, the three-nucleon force, and the two-body current.