Hypernuclei and in-medium chiral dynamics

A recently introduced relativistic nuclear energy density functional, constrained by features of low-energy QCD, is extended to describe the structure of hypernuclei. The density-dependent mean field and the spin-orbit potential of a $\Lambda$-hyperon in a nucleus, are consistently calculated using the SU(3) extension of in-medium chiral perturbation theory. The leading long-range $\Lambda N$ interaction arises from kaon-exchange and $2\pi$-exchange with a $\Sigma$-hyperon in the intermediate state. Scalar and vector mean fields, originating from in-medium changes of the quark condensates, produce a sizeable {\em short-range} spin-orbit interaction. The model, when applied to oxygen as a test case, provides a natural explanation for the smallness of the effective $\Lambda$ spin-orbit potential: an almost complete cancellation between the background contributions (scalar and vector) and the long-range terms generated by two-pion exchange.Comment: 8 pages and 6 figures. To appear in the proceedings of the Theoretical nuclear physics school "Exotic Nuclei: New Challenges", Les Houches (France) May 7-18, 200

Optical Potentials Derived from Nucleon-Nucleon Chiral Potentials at N4LO

Background: Elastic scattering is probably the main event in the interactions of nucleons with nuclei. Even if this process has been extensively studied in the last years, a consistent description, i.e., starting from microscopic two- and many-body forces connected by the same symmetries and principles, is still under development. Purpose: In a previous paper we derived a theoretical optical potential from NN chiral potentials at fourth order (N3LO). In the present work we use NN chiral potentials at fifth order (N4LO), with the purpose to check the convergence and to assess the theoretical errors associated with the truncation of the chiral expansion in the construction of an optical potential. Methods: The optical potential is derived as the first-order term within the spectator expansion of the nonrelativistic multiple scattering theory and adopting the impulse approximation and the optimum factorization approximation. Results: The pp and np Wolfenstein amplitudes and the cross section, analyzing power, and spin rotation of elastic proton scattering from 16O, 12C, and 40Ca nuclei are presented at an incident proton energy of 200 MeV. The results obtained with different versions of chiral potentials at N4LO are compared. Conclusions: Our results indicate that convergence has been reached at N4LO. The agreement with the experimental data is comparable with the agreement obtained in our previous work. We confirm that building an optical potential within chiral perturbation theory is a promising approach for describing elastic proton-nucleus scattering.Comment: Physical Review C, in prin

Nuclear pairing from microscopic forces: singlet channels and higher-partial waves

Background: An accurate description of nuclear pairing gaps is extremely important for understanding static and dynamic properties of the inner crusts of neutron stars and to explain their cooling process. Purpose: We plan to study the behavior of the pairing gaps $\Delta_F$ as a function of the Fermi momentum $k_F$ for neutron and nuclear matter in all relevant angular momentum channels where superfluidity is believed to naturally emerge. The calculations will employ realistic chiral nucleon-nucleon potentials with the inclusion of three-body forces and self-energy effects. Methods: The superfluid states of neutron and nuclear matter are studied by solving the BCS gap equation for chiral nuclear potentials using the method suggested by Khodel et al., where the original gap equation is replaced by a coupled set of equations for the dimensionless gap function $\chi(p)$ defined by $\Delta(p) = \Delta_F \chi(p)$ and a non-linear algebraic equation for the gap magnitude $\Delta_F = \Delta(p_F)$ at the Fermi surface. This method is numerically stable even for small pairing gaps, such as that encountered in the coupled $^3PF_2$ partial wave. Results: We have successfully applied Khodel's method to singlet ($S$) and coupled channel ($SD$ and $PF$) cases in neutron and nuclear matter. Our calculations agree with other ab-initio approaches, where available, and provide crucial inputs for future applications in superfluid systems.Comment: 18 pages and 9 figure

Spectra of primordial fluctuations in two-perfect-fluid regular bounces

We introduce analytic solutions for a class of two components bouncing models, where the bounce is triggered by a negative energy density perfect fluid. The equation of state of the two components are constant in time, but otherwise unrelated. By numerically integrating regular equations for scalar cosmological perturbations, we find that the (would be) growing mode of the Newtonian potential before the bounce never matches with the the growing mode in the expanding stage. For the particular case of a negative energy density component with a stiff equation of state we give a detailed analytic study, which is in complete agreement with the numerical results. We also perform analytic and numerical calculations for long wavelength tensor perturbations, obtaining that, in most cases of interest, the tensor spectral index is independent of the negative energy fluid and given by the spectral index of the growing mode in the contracting stage. We compare our results with previous investigations in the literature.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figure

Chiral pion-nucleon dynamics in finite nuclei: spin-isospin excitations

The nuclear density functional framework, based on chiral dynamics and the symmetry breaking pattern of low-energy QCD, is extended to the description of collective nuclear excitations. Starting from the relativistic point-coupling Lagrangian previously introduced [Nucl. Phys. A770 (2006) 1], the proton-neutron (quasiparticle) random phase approximation is formulated and applied to investigate the role of chiral pion-nucleon dynamics in excitation modes involving spin and isospin degrees of freedom, e.g. isobaric analog states and Gamow-Teller resonances.Comment: 17 pages, 6 figures, elsart class. Minor revisions, Nuclear Physics A in prin

Adiabatic regularization of the graviton stress-energy tensor in de Sitter space-time

We study the renormalized energy-momentum tensor of gravitons in a de Sitter space-time. After canonically quantizing only the physical degrees of freedom, we adopt the standard adiabatic subtraction used for massless minimally coupled scalar fields as a regularization procedure and find that the energy density of gravitons in the E(3) invariant vacuum is proportional to H^4, where H is the Hubble parameter, but with a positive sign. According to this result the scalar expansion rate, which is gauge invariant in de Sitter space-time, is increased by the fluctuations. This implies that gravitons may then add to conformally coupled matter in driving the Starobinsky model of inflation.Comment: 5 pages, revtex, final version accepted for publication in PR

Spin-orbit coupling in nuclei and realistic nucleon-nucleon potentials

We analyze the spin-orbit coupling term in the nuclear energy density functional in terms of a zero-range NN-contact interaction and finite-range contributions from two-pion exchange. We show that the strength of the spin-orbit contact interaction as extracted from high-precision nucleon-nucleon potentials is in perfect agreement with that of phenomenological Skyrme forces employed in non-relativistic nuclear structure calculations. Additional long-range contributions from chiral two-pion exchange turn out to be relatively small. These explicitly density-dependent contributions reduce the ratio of the isovector to the isoscalar spin-orbit strength significantly below the Skyrme value 1/3. We perform a similar analysis for the strength function of the $(\vec \nabla \rho)^2$-term and find values not far from those of phenomenological Skyrme parameterizations.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in Physical Review C70 (2004

In-medium chiral SU(3) dynamics and hypernuclear structure

A previously introduced relativistic energy density functional, successfully applied to ordinary nuclei, is extended to hypernuclei. The density-dependent mean field and the spin-orbit potential are consistently calculated for a $\Lambda$ hyperon in the nucleus using the SU(3) extension of in-medium chiral perturbation theory. The leading long range $\Lambda N$ interaction arises from kaon-exchange and $2\pi$-exchange with $\Sigma$ hyperon in the intermediate state. Scalar and vector mean fields reflecting in-medium changes of the quark condensates are constrained by QCD sum rules. The model, applied to oxygen as a test case, describes spectroscopic data in good agreement with experiment. In particular, the smallness of the $\Lambda$ spin-orbit interaction finds a natural explanation in terms of an almost complete cancellation between scalar-vector background contributions and long-range terms generated by two-pion exchange.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures, elsart class. Minor revision

Stochastic growth of quantum fluctuations during slow-roll inflation

We compute the growth of the mean square of quantum fluctuations of test fields with small effective mass during a slowly changing, nearly de Sitter stage which took place in different inflationary models. We consider a minimally coupled scalar with a small mass, a modulus with an effective mass $\propto H^2$ (with $H$ as the Hubble parameter) and a massless non-minimally coupled scalar in the test field approximation and compare the growth of their relative mean square with the one of gauge-invariant inflaton fluctuations. We find that in most of the single field inflationary models the mean square gauge invariant inflaton fluctuation grows {\em faster} than any test field with a non-negative effective mass. Hybrid inflationary models can be an exception: the mean square of a test field can dominate over the gauge invariant inflaton fluctuation one on suitably choosing parameters. We also compute the stochastic growth of quantum fluctuation of a second field, relaxing the assumption of its zero homogeneous value, in a generic inflationary model; as a main result, we obtain that the equation of motion of a gauge invariant variable associated, order by order, with a generic quantum scalar fluctuation during inflation can be obtained only if we use the number of e-folds as the time variable in the corresponding Langevin and Fokker-Planck equations for the stochastic approach. We employ this approach to derive some bounds in the case of a model with two massive fields.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures. Added references, minor changes, matches the version to be published in Phys. Rev.