Structure of the vacuum states in the presence of isovector and isoscalar pairing correlations

The long standing problem of proton-neutron pairing and, in particular, the limitations imposed on the solutions by the available symmetries, is revisited. We look for solutions with non-vanishing expectation values of the proton, the neutron and the isoscalar gaps. For an equal number of protons and neutrons we find two solutions where the absolute values of proton and neutrons gaps are equal but have the same or opposite sign. The behavior and structure of these solutions differ for spin saturated (single l-shell) and spin unsaturared systems (single j-shell). In the former case the BCS results are checked against an exact calculation.Comment: 19 pages, 5 postscript figure

Spin distribution of nuclear levels using static path approximation with random-phase approximation

We present a thermal and quantum-mechanical treatment of nuclear rotation using the formalism of static path approximation (SPA) plus random-phase approximation (RPA). Naive perturbation theory fails because of the presence of zero-frequency modes due to dynamical symmetry breaking. Such modes lead to infrared divergences. We show that composite zero-frequency excitations are properly treated within the collective coordinate method. The resulting perturbation theory is free from infrared divergences. Without the assumption of individual random spin vectors, we derive microscopically the spin distribution of the level density. The moment of inertia is thereby related to the spin-cutoff parameter in the usual way. Explicit calculations are performed for 56^Fe; various thermal properties are discussed. In particular, we demonstrate that the increase of the moment of inertia with increasing temperature is correlated with the suppression of pairing correlations.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in Physical Review

Triaxial quadrupole deformation dynamics in sd-shell nuclei around 26Mg

Large-amplitude dynamics of axial and triaxial quadrupole deformation in 24,26Mg, 24Ne, and 28Si is investigated on the basis of the quadrupole collective Hamiltonian constructed with use of the constrained Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov plus the local quasiparticle random phase approximation method. The calculation reproduces well properties of the ground rotational bands, and beta and gamma vibrations in 24Mg and 28Si. The gamma-softness in the collective states of 26Mg and 24Ne are discussed. Contributions of the neutrons and protons to the transition properties are also analyzed in connection with the large-amplitude quadrupole dynamics.Comment: 16 pages, 18 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

The cranking formula and the spurious behaviour of the mass parameters

We discuss some aspects of the approach of the mass parameters by means of the simple cranking model. In particular, it is well known that the numerical application of this formula is often subject to ambiguities or contradictions. It is found that these problems are induced by the presence of two derivatives in the formula. To overcome these problems, we state a useful ansatz and we develop a number of simple arguments which tend to justify the removal of these terms. As soon as this is done, the formula becomes simpler and easier to interpret. In this respect, it is shown how the shell effects affect the mass parameters. A number of numerical tests help us in our conclusions.Comment: version 3 corrigendum of the ansatz of section V, corrigendum of the legend of Fig3. Submission = text file + 5 figure

Many-body effects in nuclear structure

We calculate, for the first time, the state-dependent pairing gap of a finite nucleus (120Sn) diagonalizing the bare nucleon-nucleon potential (Argonne v14) in a Hartree-Fock basis (with effective k-mass m_k eqult to 0.7 m), within the framework of the BCS approximation including scattering states up to 800 MeV above the Fermi energy to achieve convergence. The resulting gap accounts for about half of the experimental gap. We find that a consistent description of the low-energy nuclear spectrum requires, aside from the bare nucleon-nucleon interaction, not only the dressing of single-particle motion through the coupling to the nuclear surface, to give the right density of levels close to the Fermi energy (and thus an effective mass m* approximately equal to m), but also the renormalization of collective vibrational modes through vertex and self-energy processes, processes which are also found to play an essential role in the pairing channel, leading to a long range, state dependent component of the pairing interaction. The combined effect of the bare nucleon-nucleon potential and of the induced pairing interaction arising from the exchange of low-lying surface vibrations between nucleons moving in time reversal states close to the Fermi energy accounts for the experimental gap.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures; author list correcte

Expanding the role of FurA as essential global regulator in cyanobacteria

In the nitrogen-fixing heterocyst-forming cyanobacterium Anabaena sp. PCC 7120, the ferric uptake regulator FurA plays a global regulatory role. Failures to eliminate wild-type copies of furA gene from the polyploid genome suggest essential functions. In the present study, we developed a selectively regulated furA expression system by the replacement of furA promoter in the Anabaena sp. chromosomes with the Co2+/Zn2+ inducible coaT promoter from Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803. By removing Co2+ and Zn2+ from the medium and shutting off furA expression, we showed that FurA was absolutely required for cyanobacterial growth. RNA-seq based comparative transcriptome analyses of the furA-turning off strain and its parental wild-type in conjunction with subsequent electrophoretic mobility shift assays and semi-quantitative RT-PCR were carried out in order to identify direct transcriptional targets and unravel new biological roles of FurA. The results of such approaches led us to identify 15 novel direct iron-dependent transcriptional targets belonging to different functional categories including detoxification and defences against oxidative stress, phycobilisome degradation, chlorophyll catabolism and programmed cell death, light sensing and response, heterocyst differentiation, exopolysaccharide biosynthesis, among others. Our analyses evidence novel interactions in the complex regulatory network orchestrated by FurA in cyanobacteria

Anomalous rotational-alignment in N=Z nuclei and residual neutron-proton interaction

Recent experiments have demonstrated that the rotational-alignment for the $N=Z$ nuclei in the mass-80 region is considerably delayed as compared to the neighboring $N \ne Z$ nuclei. We investigate whether this observation can be understood by a known component of nuclear residual interactions. It is shown that the quadrupole-pairing interaction, which explains many of the delays known in rare-earth nuclei, does not produce the substantial delay observed for these $N=Z$ nuclei. However, the residual neutron-proton interaction which is conjectured to be relevant for $N=Z$ nuclei is shown to be quite important in explaining the new experimental data.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, final version accepted by Phys. Rev. C as a Rapid Communicatio

Microscopic description of large-amplitude shape-mixing dynamics with inertial functions derived in local quasiparticle random-phase approximation

On the basis of the adiabatic self-consistent collective coordinate method, we develop an efficient microscopic method of deriving the five-dimensional quadrupole collective Hamiltonian and illustrate its usefulness by applying it to the oblate-prolate shape coexistence/mixing phenomena in proton-rich 68,70,72Se. In this method, the vibrational and rotational collective masses (inertial functions) are determined by local normal modes built on constrained Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov states. Numerical calculations are carried out using the pairing-plus-quadrupole Hamiltonian including the quadrupole-pairing interaction. It is shown that the time-odd components of the moving mean-field significantly increase the vibrational and rotational collective masses in comparison with the Inglis-Belyaev cranking masses. Solving the collective Schroedinger equation, we evaluate excitation spectra, quadrupole transitions and moments. Results of the numerical calculation are in excellent agreement with recent experimental data and indicate that the low-lying states of these nuclei are characterized as an intermediate situation between the oblate-prolate shape coexistence and the so-called gamma unstable situation where large-amplitude triaxial-shape fluctuations play a dominant role.Comment: 17 pages, 16 figures, Submitted to Phys. Rev.