Saturation with chiral interactions and consequences for finite nuclei

We explore the impact of nuclear matter saturation on the properties and systematics of finite nuclei across the nuclear chart. Using the ab initio in-medium similarity renormalization group (IM-SRG), we study ground-state energies and charge radii of closed-shell nuclei from $^4$He to $^{78}$Ni, based on a set of low-resolution two- and three-nucleon interactions that predict realistic saturation properties. We first investigate in detail the convergence properties of these Hamiltonians with respect to model-space truncations for both two- and three-body interactions. We find one particular interaction that reproduces well the ground-state energies of all closed-shell nuclei studied. As expected from their saturation points relative to this interaction, the other Hamiltonians underbind nuclei, but lead to a remarkably similar systematics of ground-state energies. Extending our calculations to complete isotopic chains in the $sd$ and $pf$ shells with the valence-space IM-SRG, the same interaction reproduces not only experimental ground states but two-neutron-separation energies and first excited $2^+$ states. We also calculate radii with the valence-space IM-SRG for the first time. Since this particular interaction saturates at too high density, charge radii are still too small compared with experiment. Except for this underprediction, the radii systematics is, however, well reproduced. Our results highlight the importance of nuclear matter as a theoretical benchmark for the development of next-generation chiral interactions.Comment: 11 pages, 15 figures, 1 tabl

Radii and binding energies in oxygen isotopes: a puzzle for nuclear forces

We present a systematic study of both nuclear radii and binding energies in (even) oxygen isotopes from the valley of stability to the neutron drip line. Both charge and matter radii are compared to state-of-the-art {\it ab initio} calculations along with binding energy systematics. Experimental matter radii are obtained through a complete evaluation of the available elastic proton scattering data of oxygen isotopes. We show that, in spite of a good reproduction of binding energies, {\it ab initio} calculations with conventional nuclear interactions derived within chiral effective field theory fail to provide a realistic description of charge and matter radii. A novel version of two- and three-nucleon forces leads to considerable improvement of the simultaneous description of the three observables for stable isotopes, but shows deficiencies for the most neutron-rich systems. Thus, crucial challenges related to the development of nuclear interactions remain.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, Submitted to Nature Physics, April 12th 2016; first version (v1 Arxiv) Internal Report Preprint Irfu-18 December 2015. 6 p., 5 fig., Submitted to Physical Review Letters, April 29, May 3rd 2016; 2nd version. Int. Rep. Irfu-24 May 2016. Published in PRL, 27 July 2016 with the modified title (Radii and binding energies in oxygen isotopes: a challenge for nuclear forces

Ab initio calculations of neutrinoless ββ\beta \beta decay refine neutrino mass limits

Neutrinos are perhaps the most elusive known particles in the universe. We know they have some nonzero mass, but unlike all other particles, the absolute scale remains unknown. In addition, their fundamental nature is uncertain; they can either be their own antiparticles or exist as distinct neutrinos and antineutrinos. The observation of the hypothetical process of neutrinoless double-beta ($0\nu\beta\beta$) decay would at once resolve both questions, while providing a strong lead in understanding the abundance of matter over antimatter in our universe. In the scenario of light-neutrino exchange, the decay rate is governed by, and thereby linked to the effective mass of the neutrino via, the theoretical nuclear matrix element (NME). In order to extract the neutrino mass, if a discovery is made, or to assess the discovery potential of next-generation searches, it is essential to obtain accurate NMEs for all isotopes of experimental interest. However, two of the most important cases, $^{130}$Te and $^{136}$Xe, lie in the heavy region and have only been accessible to phenomenological nuclear models. In this work we utilize powerful advances in ab initio nuclear theory to compute NMEs from the underlying nuclear and weak forces driving this decay, including the recently discovered short-range component. We find that ab initio NMEs are generally smaller than those from nuclear models, challenging the expected reach of future ton-scale searches as well as claims to probe the inverted hierarchy of neutrino masses. With this step, ab initio calculations with theoretical uncertainties are now feasible for all isotopes relevant for next-generation $0\nu\beta\beta$ decay experiments.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, supplemental material include

Structure of the lightest tin isotopes

We link the structure of nuclei around $^{100}$Sn, the heaviest doubly magic nucleus with equal neutron and proton numbers ($N=Z=50$), to nucleon-nucleon ($NN$) and three-nucleon ($NNN$) forces constrained by data of few-nucleon systems. Our results indicate that $^{100}$Sn is doubly magic, and we predict its quadrupole collectivity. We present precise computations of $^{101}$Sn based on three-particle--two-hole excitations of $^{100}$Sn, and reproduce the small splitting between the lowest $J^\pi=7/2^+$ and $5/2^+$ states. Our results are consistent with the sparse available data.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure

Discrepancy between experimental and theoretical β\beta-decay rates resolved from first principles

$\beta$-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 $\beta$-decay rates are systematically smaller than theoretical predictions. This was attributed to an apparent quenching of the fundamental coupling constant $g_A \simeq$ 1.27 in the nucleus by a factor of about 0.75 compared to the $\beta$-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 $\beta$-decays from light to heavy nuclei. Our results are consistent with experimental data, including the pioneering measurement for $^{100}$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-$\beta$-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 $E_{3\max}=28$, well beyond the previous limit of 18. We demonstrate that this is sufficient to obtain ground-state energies in $^{132}$Sn converged to within a few MeV with respect to the $E_{3\max}$ 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 $J_{\rm rel}>9/2$ 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 $^{132}$Sn agrees with the experimental value within theoretical uncertainties. This work enables converged ab initio calculations of heavy nuclei.Comment: 13 pages, 10 figure