Structure and decays of nuclear three-body systems: the Gamow coupled-channel method in Jacobi coordinates

${\bf Background:}$ Weakly bound and unbound nuclear states appearing around particle thresholds are prototypical open quantum systems. Theories of such states must take into account configuration mixing effects in the presence of strong coupling to the particle continuum space. ${\bf Purpose:}$ To describe structure and decays of three-body systems, we developed a Gamow coupled-channel (GCC) approach in Jacobi coordinates by employing the complex-momentum formalism. We benchmarked the new framework against the complex-energy Gamow Shell Model (GSM). ${\bf Methods:}$ The GCC formalism is expressed in Jacobi coordinates, so that the center-of-mass motion is automatically eliminated. To solve the coupled-channel equations, we use hyperspherical harmonics to describe the angular wave functions while the radial wave functions are expanded in the Berggren ensemble, which includes bound, scattering and Gamow states. ${\bf Results:}$ We show that the GCC method is both accurate and robust. Its results for energies, decay widths, and nucleon-nucleon angular correlations are in good agreement with the GSM results. ${\bf Conclusions:}$ We have demonstrated that a three-body GSM formalism explicitly constructed in cluster-orbital shell model coordinates provides similar results to a GCC framework expressed in Jacobi coordinates, provided that a large configuration space is employed. Our calculations for $A=6$ systems and $^{26}$O show that nucleon-nucleon angular correlations are sensitive to the valence-neutron interaction. The new GCC technique has many attractive features when applied to bound and unbound states of three-body systems: it is precise, efficient, and can be extended by introducing a microscopic model of the core.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figure

Ab-initio No-Core Gamow Shell Model calculations with realistic interactions

No-Core Gamow Shell Model (NCGSM) is applied for the first time to study selected well-bound and unbound states of helium isotopes. This model is formulated on the complex energy plane and, by using a complete Berggren ensemble, treats bound, resonant, and scattering states on equal footing. We use the Density Matrix Renormalization Group method to solve the many-body Schr\"{o}dinger equation. To test the validity of our approach, we benchmarked the NCGSM results against Faddeev and Faddeev-Yakubovsky exact calculations for $^3$H and $^4$He nuclei. We also performed {\textit ab initio} NCGSM calculations for the unstable nucleus $^5$He and determined the ground state energy and decay width, starting from a realistic N$^3$LO chiral interaction.Comment: 17 pages, 14 figures. Revised version. Discussion on microscopic overlap functions, SFs and ANCs is added. Added references. Accepted for publication at PR

Description of the proton and neutron radiative capture reactions in the Gamow shell model

We formulate the Gamow shell model (GSM) in coupled-channel (CC) representation for the description of proton/neutron radiative capture reactions and present the first application of this new formalism for the calculation of cross-sections in mirror reactions 7Be(p,gamma)8B and 7Li(n,gamma)8Li. The GSM-CC formalism is applied to a translationally-invariant Hamiltonian with an effective finite-range two-body interaction. Reactions channels are built by GSM wave functions for the ground state 3/2- and the first excited state 1/2- of 7Be/7Li and the proton/neutron wave function expanded in different partial waves

The measurement errors in the Swift-UVOT and XMM-OM

The probability of photon measurement in some photon counting instrumentation, such as the Optical Monitor on the XMM-Newton satellite, and the UVOT on the Swift satellite, does not follow a Poisson distribution due to the detector characteristics, but a Binomial distribution. For a single-pixel approximation, an expression was derived for the incident countrate as a function of the measured count rate by Fordham, Moorhead and Galbraith (2000). We show that the measured countrate error is binomial, and extend their formalism to derive the error in the incident count rate. The error on the incident count rate at large count rates is larger than the Poisson-error of the incident count rate.Comment: 4 pages, 2 postscript figures, submitted to MNRA

Gamow shell model description of radiative capture reactions 6^6Li(p,γ)(p,\gamma)7^7Be and 6^6Li(n,γ)(n,\gamma)7^7Li

According to standard stellar evolution, lithium abundance is believed to be a useful indicator of the stellar age. However, many evolved stars like red giants show huge fluctuations around expected theoretical abundances that are not yet fully understood. The better knowledge of nuclear reactions that contribute to the creation and destruction of lithium can help to solve this puzzle. In this work we apply the Gamow shell model (GSM) formulated in the coupled-channel representation (GSM-CC) to investigate the mirror radiative capture reactions $^6$Li$(p,\gamma)$$^7$Be and $^6$Li$(n,\gamma)$$^7$Li. The cross-sections are calculated using a translationally invariant Hamiltonian with the finite-range interaction which is adjusted to reproduce spectra, binding energies and one-nucleon separation energies in $^{6-7}$Li, $^7$Be. All relevant $E1$, $M1$, and $E2$ transitions from the initial continuum states to the final bound states $J={3/2}_1^-$ and $J={1/2}^-$ of $^7$Li and $^7$Be are included. We demonstrate that the $s$-wave radiative capture of proton (neutron) to the first excited state $J^{\pi}=1/2_1^+$ of $^7$Be ($^7$Li) is crucial and increases the total astrophysical $S$-factor by about 40 \%.Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1502.0163