157 research outputs found
Discrepancy between experimental and theoretical -decay rates resolved from first principles
-decay, a process that changes a neutron into a proton (and vice
versa), is the dominant decay mode of atomic nuclei. This decay offers a unique
window to physics beyond the standard model, and is at the heart of
microphysical processes in stellar explosions and the synthesis of the elements
in the Universe. For 50 years, a central puzzle has been that observed
-decay rates are systematically smaller than theoretical predictions.
This was attributed to an apparent quenching of the fundamental coupling
constant 1.27 in the nucleus by a factor of about 0.75 compared
to the -decay of a free neutron. The origin of this quenching is
controversial and has so far eluded a first-principles theoretical
understanding. Here we address this puzzle and show that this quenching arises
to a large extent from the coupling of the weak force to two nucleons as well
as from strong correlations in the nucleus. We present state-of-the-art
computations of -decays from light to heavy nuclei. Our results are
consistent with experimental data, including the pioneering measurement for
Sn. These theoretical advances are enabled by systematic effective
field theories of the strong and weak interactions combined with powerful
quantum many-body techniques. This work paves the way for systematic
theoretical predictions for fundamental physics problems. These include the
synthesis of heavy elements in neutron star mergers and the search for
neutrino-less double--decay, where an analogous quenching puzzle is a
major source of uncertainty in extracting the neutrino mass scale.Comment: 20 pages, 18 figure
Converged ab initio calculations of heavy nuclei
We propose a novel storage scheme for three-nucleon (3N) interaction matrix
elements relevant for the normal-ordered two-body approximation used
extensively in ab initio calculations of atomic nuclei. This scheme reduces the
required memory by approximately two orders of magnitude, which allows the
generation of 3N interaction matrix elements with the standard truncation of
, well beyond the previous limit of 18. We demonstrate that this
is sufficient to obtain ground-state energies in Sn converged to within
a few MeV with respect to the truncation. In addition, we study the
asymptotic convergence behavior and perform extrapolations to the un-truncated
limit. Finally, we investigate the impact of truncations made when evolving
free-space 3N interactions with the similarity renormalization group. We find
that the contribution of blocks with angular momentum is
dominated by a basis-truncation artifact which vanishes in the large-space
limit, so these computationally expensive components can be neglected. For the
two sets of nuclear interactions employed in this work, the resulting binding
energy of Sn agrees with the experimental value within theoretical
uncertainties. This work enables converged ab initio calculations of heavy
nuclei.Comment: 13 pages, 10 figure
Spectroscopy of Sc and ab initio calculations of strengths
The GRIFFIN spectrometer at TRIUMF-ISAC has been used to study excited states
and transitions in Sc following the -decay of Ca.
Branching ratios were determined from the measured -ray intensities,
and angular correlations of rays have been used to firmly assign the
spins of excited states. The presence of an isomeric state that decays by an
transition with a strength of 13.6(7)\,W.u. has been confirmed. We
compare with the first {\it ab initio} calculations of ) strengths in
light and medium-mass nuclei from the valence-space in-medium similarity
renormalization group approach, using consistently derived effective
Hamiltonians and operator. The experimental data are well reproduced for
isoscalar transitions when using bare -factors, but the strength of
isovector transitions are found to be underestimated by an order of
magnitude
Structure of 55Sc and development of the N=34 subshell closure
The low-lying structure of Sc has been investigated using in-beam
-ray spectroscopy with the Be(Ti,Sc+)
one-proton removal and Be(Sc,Sc+)
inelastic-scattering reactions at the RIKEN Radioactive Isotope Beam Factory.
Transitions with energies of 572(4), 695(5), 1539(10), 1730(20), 1854(27),
2091(19), 2452(26), and 3241(39) keV are reported, and a level scheme has been
constructed using coincidence relationships and -ray
relative intensities. The results are compared to large-scale shell-model
calculations in the - model space, which account for positive-parity
states from proton-hole cross-shell excitations, and to it ab initio
shell-model calculations from the in-medium similarity renormalization group
that includes three-nucleon forces explicitly. The results of proton-removal
reaction theory with the eikonal model approach were adopted to aid
identification of positive-parity states in the level scheme; experimental
counterparts of theoretical and states are
suggested from measured decay patterns. The energy of the first
state, which is sensitive to the neutron shell gap at the Fermi surface, was
determined. The result indicates a rapid weakening of the subshell
closure in -shell nuclei at , even when only a single proton occupies
the orbital
Probing elastic and inelastic breakup contributions to intermediate-energy two-proton removal reactions
The two-proton removal reaction from 28Mg projectiles has been studied at 93
MeV/u at the NSCL. First coincidence measurements of the heavy 26Ne projectile
residues, the removed protons and other light charged particles enabled the
relative cross sections from each of the three possible elastic and inelastic
proton removal mechanisms to be determined. These more final-state-exclusive
measurements are key for further interrogation of these reaction mechanisms and
use of the reaction channel for quantitative spectroscopy of very neutron-rich
nuclei. The relative and absolute yields of the three contributing mechanisms
are compared to reaction model expectations - based on the use of eikonal
dynamics and sd-shell-model structure amplitudes.Comment: Accepted for publication in Physical Review C (Rapid Communication
Elastic breakup cross sections of well-bound nucleons
The 9Be(28Mg,27Na) one-proton removal reaction with a large proton separation
energy of Sp(28Mg)=16.79 MeV is studied at intermediate beam energy.
Coincidences of the bound 27Na residues with protons and other light charged
particles are measured. These data are analyzed to determine the percentage
contributions to the proton removal cross section from the elastic and
inelastic nucleon removal mechanisms. These deduced contributions are compared
with the eikonal reaction model predictions and with the previously measured
data for reactions involving the re- moval of more weakly-bound protons from
lighter nuclei. The role of transitions of the proton between different bound
single-particle configurations upon the elastic breakup cross section is also
quantified in this well-bound case. The measured and calculated elastic breakup
fractions are found to be in good agreement.Comment: Phys. Rev. C 2014 (accepted
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