Improved lower bounds for the ground-state energy of many-body systems

New lower bounds for the binding energy of a quantum-mechanical system of interacting particles are presented. The new bounds are expressed in terms of two-particle quantities and improve the conventional bounds of the Hall-Post type. They are constructed by considering not only the energy in the two-particle system, but also the structure of the pair wave function. We apply the formal results to various numerical examples, and show that in some cases dramatic improvement over the existing bounds is reached.Comment: 29 pages, 5 figures, to be published in Phys. Rev.

A primal-dual semidefinite programming algorithm tailored to the variational determination of the two-body density matrix

The quantum many-body problem can be rephrased as a variational determination of the two-body reduced density matrix, subject to a set of N-representability constraints. The mathematical problem has the form of a semidefinite program. We adapt a standard primal-dual interior point algorithm in order to exploit the specific structure of the physical problem. In particular the matrix-vector product can be calculated very efficiently. We have applied the proposed algorithm to a pairing-type Hamiltonian and studied the computational aspects of the method. The standard N-representability conditions perform very well for this problem.Comment: 24 pages, 5 figures, submitted to the Journal of Computational Physic

The Spectral Function for Finite Nuclei in the Local Density Approximation

The spectral function for finite nuclei is computed within the framework of the Local Density Approximation, starting from nuclear matter spectral functions obtained with a realistic nucleon-nucleon interaction. The spectral function is decomposed into a single-particle part and a ''correlated'' part; the latter is treated in the local density approximation. As an application momentum distributions, quasi-particle strengths and overlap functions for valence hole states, and the light-cone momentum distribution in finite nuclei are computed.Comment: 21 pages + 9 figures available upon request, RevTex, preprint KVI-108

On the nuclear symmetry energy and the neutron skin in neutron-rich nuclei

The symmetry energy for nuclear matter and its relation to the neutron skin in finite nuclei is discussed. The symmetry energy as a function of density obtained in a self-consistent Green function approach is presented and compared to the results of other recent theoretical approaches. A partial explanation of the linear relation between the symmetry energy and the neutron skin is proposed. The potential of several experimental methods to extract the neutron skin is examined.Comment: to appear in Phys. Rev.

Production of e+e- pairs in proton-deuteron capture to 3He

The process p+d \leftrightarrow 3He + \gamma* at intermediate energies is described using a covariant and gauge-invariant model, and a realistic pd3He vertex. Both photodisintegration of 3He and proton-deuteron capture with production of e+e- pairs are studied, and results for cross sections and response functions are presented. The effect of time-like formfactors on the dilepton cross sections is investigated as well.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, Revtex, to be published in Physics Letters

Correlation effects in single-particle overlap functions and one-nucleon removal reactions

Single-particle overlap functions and spectroscopic factors are calculated on the basis of the one-body density matrices (ODM) obtained for the nucleus $^{16}O$ employing different approaches to account for the effects of correlations. The calculations use the relationship between the overlap functions related to bound states of the (A-1)-particle system and the ODM for the ground state of the A-particle system. The resulting bound-state overlap functions are compared and tested in the description of the experimental data from (p,d) reactions for which the shape of the overlap function is important.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures include

Center-of-mass effects on the quasi-hole spectroscopic factors in the 16O(e,e'p) reaction

The spectroscopic factors for the low-lying quasi-hole states observed in the 16O(e,e'p)15N reaction are reinvestigated with a variational Monte Carlo calculation for the structure of the initial and final nucleus. A computational error in a previous report is rectified. It is shown that a proper treatment of center-of-mass motion does not lead to a reduction of the spectroscopic factor for $p$-shell quasi-hole states, but rather to a 7% enhancement. This is in agreement with analytical results obtained in the harmonic oscillator model. The center-of-mass effect worsens the discrepancy between present theoretical models and the experimentally observed single-particle strength. We discuss the present status of this problem, including some other mechanisms that may be relevant in this respect.Comment: 14 pages, no figures, uses Revtex, to be published in Phys. Rev. C 58 (1998

Electromagnetic interaction in chiral quantum hadrodynamics and decay of vector and axial-vector mesons

The chiral invariant QHD-III model of Serot and Walecka is applied in the calculation of some meson properties. The electromagnetic interaction is included by extending the symmetry of the model to the local U(1) \times SU(2)_{R} \times SU(2)_{L} group. The minimal and nonminimal contributions to the electromagnetic Lagrangian are obtained in a new representation of QHD-III. Strong decays of the axial-vector meson, a_{1} \to \pi \rho, a_{1} \to \pi \sigma, and the electromagnetic decays \rho \to \pi \pi \gamma, a_{1} \to \pi \gamma and \rho \to \pi \gamma are calculated. The low-energy parameters for the \pi-\pi scattering are calculated in the tree-level approximation. The effect of the auxiliary Higgs bosons, introduced in QHD-III in order to generate masses of the vector and axial-vector mesons via the Higgs mechanism, is studied as well. This is done on the tree level for \pi-\pi scattering and on the level of one-loop diagrams for the a_{1} \to \pi \gamma decay. It is demonstrated that the model successfully describes some features of meson phenomenology in the non-strange sector

Long-range correlations in finite nuclei: comparison of two self-consistent treatments

Long-range correlations, which are partially responsible for the observed fragmentation and depletion of low-lying single-particle strength, are studied in the Green's function formalism. The self-energy is expanded up to second order in the residual interaction. We compare two methods of implementing self-consistency in the solution of the Dyson equation beyond Hartree-Fock, for the case of the 16O nucleus. It is found that the energy-bin method and the BAGEL method lead to globally equivalent results. In both methods the final single-particle strength functions are characterized by exponential tails at energies far from the Fermi level