Collectivity in Heavy Nuclei in the Shell Model Monte Carlo Approach

The microscopic description of collectivity in heavy nuclei in the framework of the configuration-interaction shell model has been a major challenge. The size of the model space required for the description of heavy nuclei prohibits the use of conventional diagonalization methods. We have overcome this difficulty by using the shell model Monte Carlo (SMMC) method, which can treat model spaces that are many orders of magnitude larger than those that can be treated by conventional methods. We identify a thermal observable that can distinguish between vibrational and rotational collectivity and use it to describe the crossover from vibrational to rotational collectivity in families of even-even rare-earth isotopes. We calculate the state densities in these nuclei and find them to be in close agreement with experimental data. We also calculate the collective enhancement factors of the corresponding level densities and find that their decay with excitation energy is correlated with the pairing and shape phase transitions.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, to be published in the Proceedings of the Fourth International Workshop on Compound-Nuclear Reactions and Related Topics (CNR*13

Level Densities by Particle-Number Reprojection Monte Carlo Methods

A particle-number reprojection method is applied in the framework of the shell model Monte Carlo approach to calculate level densities for a family of nuclei using Monte Carlo sampling for a single nucleus. In particular we can also calculate level densities of odd-even and odd-odd nuclei despite a new sign problem introduced by the projection on an odd number of particles. The method is applied to level densities in the iron region using the complete $pf+g_{9/2}$-shell. The single-particle level density parameter $a$ and the backshift parameter $\Delta$ are extracted by fitting the microscopically calculated level densities to the backshifted Bethe formula. We find good agreement with experimental level densities with no adjustable parameters in the microscopic calculations. The parameter $a$ is found to vary smoothly with mass and does not show odd-even effects. The calculated backshift parameter $\Delta$ displays an odd-even staggering effect versus mass and is in better agreement with the experimental data than are the empirical values.Comment: To be published in the proceedings of the Tenth International Symposium on Capture Gamma-Ray Spectroscopy and Related Topics, S. Wender, ed., AIP Conference Proceedings (2000

Crossover from vibrational to rotational collectivity in heavy nuclei in the shell-model Monte Carlo approach

Heavy nuclei exhibit a crossover from vibrational to rotational collectivity as the number of neutrons or protons increases from shell closure towards midshell, but the microscopic description of this crossover has been a major challenge. We apply the shell model Monte Carlo approach to families of even-even samarium and neodymium isotopes and identify a microscopic signature of the crossover from vibrational to rotational collectivity in the low-temperature behavior of $_T$, where $\bf J$ is the total spin and $T$ is the temperature. This signature agrees well with its values extracted from experimental data. We also calculate the state densities of these nuclei and find them to be in very good agreement with experimental data. Finally, we define a collective enhancement factor from the ratio of the total state density to the intrinsic state density as calculated in the finite-temperature Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov approximation. The decay of this enhancement factor with excitation energy is found to correlate with the pairing and shape phase transitions in these nuclei.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. Let

Signatures of phase transitions in nuclei at finite excitation energies

The mean-field approximation predicts pairing and shape phase transitions in nuclei as a function of temperature or excitation energy. However, in the finite nucleus the singularities of these phase transitions are smoothed out by quantal and thermal fluctuations. An interesting question is whether signatures of these transitions survive despite the large fluctuations. The shell model Monte Carlo (SMMC) approach enables us to calculate the statistical properties of nuclei beyond the mean-field approximation in model spaces that are many orders of magnitude larger than spaces that can be treated by conventional diagonalization methods. We have extended the SMMC method to heavy nuclei and used it to study the transition from vibrational (spherical) to rotational (deformed) nuclei in families of rare-earth isotopes. We have calculated collective enhancement factors of level densities as a function of excitation energy and found that the decay of the vibrational and rotational enhancements is well correlated with the pairing and shape phase transitions, respectively.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, to be published in the Proceedings of Beauty in Physics: Theory and Experimen