Superfluid Pairing in Neutrons and Cold Atoms

Ultracold atomic gases and low-density neutron matter are unique in that they exhibit pairing gaps comparable to the Fermi energy which in this sense are the largest in the laboratory and in nature, respectively. This strong pairing regime, or the crossover between BCS and BEC regimes, requires non-perturbative treatments. We describe Quantum Monte Carlo results useful to understand the properties of these systems, including infinite homogeneous matter and trapped inhomogeneous gases.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figures; chapter in "50 Years of Nuclear BCS", edited by R. A. Broglia and V. Zelevinsk

Quantum Monte Carlo calculations of neutron matter with chiral three-body forces

Chiral effective field theory (EFT) enables a systematic description of low-energy hadronic interactions with controlled theoretical uncertainties. For strongly interacting systems, quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) methods provide some of the most accurate solutions, but they require as input local potentials. We have recently constructed local chiral nucleon-nucleon (NN) interactions up to next-to-next-to-leading order (N$^2$LO). Chiral EFT naturally predicts consistent many-body forces. In this paper, we consider the leading chiral three-nucleon (3N) interactions in local form. These are included in auxiliary field diffusion Monte Carlo (AFDMC) simulations. We present results for the equation of state of neutron matter and for the energies and radii of neutron drops. In particular, we study the regulator dependence at the Hartree-Fock level and in AFDMC and find that present local regulators lead to less repulsion from 3N forces compared to the usual nonlocal regulators.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures, 1 table, published versio

Resonantly Interacting Fermions In a Box

We use two fundamental theoretical frameworks to study the finite-size (shell) properties of the unitary gas in a periodic box: 1) an ab initio Quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) calculation for boxes containing 4 to 130 particles provides a precise and complete characterization of the finite-size behavior, and 2) a new Density Functional Theory (DFT) fully encapsulates these effects. The DFT predicts vanishing shell structure for systems comprising more than 50 particles, and allows us to extrapolate the QMC results to the thermodynamic limit, providing the tightest bound to date on the ground-state energy of the unitary gas: \xi_S <= 0.383(1). We also apply the new functional to few-particle harmonically trapped systems, comparing with previous calculations.Comment: Updated to correspond with published version: 4+ pages, 2 figures, 2 tables, Palatino and Euler font

The neutron polaron as a constraint on nuclear density functionals

We study the energy of an impurity (polaron) that interacts strongly in a sea of fermions when the effective range of the impurity-fermion interaction becomes important, thereby mapping the Fermi polaron of condensed matter physics and ultracold atoms to strongly interacting neutrons. We present Quantum Monte Carlo results for this neutron polaron, and compare these with effective field theory calculations that also include contributions beyond the effective range. We show that state-of-the-art nuclear density functionals vary substantially and generally underestimate the neutron polaron energy. Our results thus provide constraints for adjusting the time-odd components of nuclear density functionals to better characterize polarized systems.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures; v2 corresponds to the published versio

Energy spectrum and effective mass using a non-local 3-body interaction

We recently proposed a nonlocal form for the 3-body induced interaction that is consistent with the Fock space representation of interaction operators but leads to a fractional power dependence on the density. Here we examine the implications of the nonlocality for the excitation spectrum. In the two-component weakly interacting Fermi gas, we find that it gives an effective mass that is comparable to the one in many-body perturbation theory. Applying the interaction to nuclear matter, it predicts a large enhancement to the effective mass. Since the saturation of nuclear matter is partly due to the induced 3-body interaction, fitted functionals should treat the effective mass as a free parameter, unless the two- and three-body contributions are determined from basic theory.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure; V2 has a table showing the 3-body energies for two phenomenological energy-density functional

Quantum Monte Carlo Calculations of Light Nuclei Using Chiral Potentials

We present the first Green's function Monte Carlo calculations of light nuclei with nuclear interactions derived from chiral effective field theory up to next-to-next-to-leading order. Up to this order, the interactions can be constructed in a local form and are therefore amenable to quantum Monte Carlo calculations. We demonstrate a systematic improvement with each order for the binding energies of $A=3$ and $A=4$ systems. We also carry out the first few-body tests to study perturbative expansions of chiral potentials at different orders, finding that higher-order corrections are more perturbative for softer interactions. Our results confirm the necessity of a three-body force for correct reproduction of experimental binding energies and radii, and pave the way for studying few- and many-nucleon systems using quantum Monte Carlo methods with chiral interactions.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, 4 tables. Updated references. Cosmetic changes to figures, tables, and equations; added a sentence clarifying the correspondence between our real-space cutoffs and momentum-space cutoffs. Other sentences were reworded for clarit

Chiral Three-Nucleon Interactions in Light Nuclei, Neutron-α\alpha Scattering, and Neutron Matter

We present quantum Monte Carlo calculations of light nuclei, neutron-$\alpha$ scattering, and neutron matter using local two- and three-nucleon ($3N$) interactions derived from chiral effective field theory up to next-to-next-to-leading order (N$^2$LO). The two undetermined $3N$ low-energy couplings are fit to the $^4$He binding energy and, for the first time, to the spin-orbit splitting in the neutron-$\alpha$ $P$-wave phase shifts. Furthermore, we investigate different choices of local $3N$-operator structures and find that chiral interactions at N$^2$LO are able to simultaneously reproduce the properties of $A=3,4,5$ systems and of neutron matter, in contrast to commonly used phenomenological $3N$ interactions.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, 1 table - updated version: small wording changes, one reference chang

Quantum Monte Carlo calculations of light nuclei with local chiral two- and three-nucleon interactions

Local chiral effective field theory interactions have recently been developed and used in the context of quantum Monte Carlo few- and many-body methods for nuclear physics. In this work, we go over detailed features of local chiral nucleon-nucleon interactions and examine their effect on properties of the deuteron, paying special attention to the perturbativeness of the expansion. We then turn to three-nucleon interactions, focusing on operator ambiguities and their interplay with regulator effects. We then discuss the nuclear Green's function Monte Carlo method, going over both wave-function correlations and approximations for the two- and three-body propagators. Following this, we present a range of results on light nuclei: Binding energies and distribution functions are contrasted and compared, starting from several different microscopic interactions.Comment: 21 pages, 14 figures, published version, Editor's Suggestio