Shell model Monte Carlo calculations for Dy-170

We present the first auxiliary field Monte Carlo calculations for a rare earth nucleus, Dy-170. A pairing plus quadrupole Hamiltonian is used to demonstrate the physical properties that can be studied in this region. We calculate various static observables for both uncranked and cranked systems and show how the shape distribution evolves with temperature. We also introduce a discretization of the path integral that allows a more efficient Monte Carlo sampling.Comment: 11 pages, figures available upon request, Caltech Preprint No. MAP-16

Structure of A=10-13 nuclei with two- plus three-nucleon interactions from chiral effective field theory

Properties of finite nuclei are evaluated with two-nucleon (NN) and three-nucleon (NNN) interactions derived within chiral effective field theory (EFT). The nuclear Hamiltonian is fixed by properties of the A=2 system, except for two low-energy constants (LECs) that parameterize the short range NNN interaction. We constrain those two LECs by a fit to the A=3 system binding energy and investigate sensitivity of 4He, 6Li, 10,11B and 12,13C properties to the variation of the constrained LECs. We identify a preferred choice that gives globally the best description. We demonstrate that the NNN interaction terms significantly improve the binding energies and spectra of mid-p-shell nuclei not just with the preferred choice of the LECs but even within a wide range of the constrained LECs. At the same time, we find that a very high quality description of these nuclei requires further improvements to the chiral Hamiltonian.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

On the Collisional Damping of Giant Dipole Resonance

Collisional damping widths of giant dipole excitations are calculated in Thomas-Fermi approximation by employing the microscopic in-medium cross-sections of Li and Machleidt and the phenomenological Gogny force. The results obtained in both calculations compare well, but account for about 25-35% of the observed widths in $^{120}Sn$ and $^{208}Pb$ at finite temperatures.Comment: Latex, 13 pages, 4 figure