3,469 research outputs found
Can Modern Nuclear Hamiltonians Tolerate a Bound Tetraneutron?
I show that it does not seem possible to change modern nuclear Hamiltonians
to bind a tetraneutron without destroying many other successful predictions of
those Hamiltonians. This means that, should a recent experimental claim of a
bound tetraneutron be confirmed, our understanding of nuclear forces will have
to be significantly changed. I also point out some errors in previous
theoretical studies of this problem.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures Revision corrects a pronou
Cold neutrons trapped in external fields
The properties of inhomogeneous neutron matter are crucial to the physics of
neutron-rich nuclei and the crust of neutron stars. Advances in computational
techniques now allow us to accurately determine the binding energies and
densities of many neutrons interacting via realistic microscopic interactions
and confined in external fields. We perform calculations for different external
fields and across several shells to place important constraints on
inhomogeneous neutron matter, and hence the large isospin limit of the nuclear
energy density functionals that are used to predict properties of heavy nuclei
and neutron star crusts. We find important differences between microscopic
calculations and current density functionals; in particular the isovector
gradient terms are significantly more repulsive than in traditional models, and
the spin-orbit and pairing forces are comparatively weaker.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, final version. Additional material reference
added in the published versio
Quantum Monte Carlo study of inhomogeneous neutron matter
We present an ab-initio study of neutron drops. We use Quantum Monte Carlo
techniques to calculate the energy up to 54 neutrons in different external
potentials, and we compare the results with Skyrme forces. We also calculate
the rms radii and radial densities, and we find that a re-adjustment of the
gradient term in Skyrme is needed in order to reproduce the properties of these
systems given by the ab-initio calculation. By using the ab-initio results for
neutron drops for close- and open-shell configurations, we suggest how to
improve Skyrme forces when dealing with systems with large isospin-asymmetries
like neutron-rich nuclei.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, talk given at Horizons on Innovative Theories,
Experiments, and Supercomputing in Nuclear Physics 2012, (HITES2012), New
Orleans, Louisiana, June 4-7, 2012; to appear in Journal of Physics:
Conference Series (JPCS
Nuclear Reactions: A Challenge for Few- and Many-Body Theory
A current interest in nuclear reactions, specifically with rare isotopes
concentrates on their reaction with neutrons, in particular neutron capture. In
order to facilitate reactions with neutrons one must use indirect methods using
deuterons as beam or target of choice. For adding neutrons, the most common
reaction is the (d,p) reaction, in which the deuteron breaks up and the neutron
is captured by the nucleus. Those (d,p) reactions may be viewed as a three-body
problem in a many-body context. This contribution reports on a feasibility
study for describing phenomenological nucleon-nucleus optical potentials in
momentum space in a separable form, so that they may be used for Faddeev
calculations of (d,p) reactions.Comment: to appear in the Proceedings of HITES 2012: Conference on `Horizons
of Innovative Theories, Experiments, and Supercomputing in Nuclear Physics',
June 4-7, 2012, New Orleans, Louisian
Quantum Monte Carlo calculations of electroweak transition matrix elements in A = 6,7 nuclei
Green's function Monte Carlo calculations of magnetic dipole, electric
quadrupole, Fermi, and Gamow-Teller transition matrix elements are reported for
A=6,7 nuclei. The matrix elements are extrapolated from mixed estimates that
bracket the relevant electroweak operator between variational Monte Carlo and
GFMC propagated wave functions. Because they are off-diagonal terms, two mixed
estimates are required for each transition, with a VMC initial (final) state
paired with a GFMC final (initial) state. The realistic Argonne v18 two-nucleon
and Illinois-2 three-nucleon interactions are used to generate the nuclear
states. In most cases we find good agreement with experimental data.Comment: v2: minor corrections to text and figure
Quantum Monte Carlo calculations of excited states in A = 6--8 nuclei
A variational Monte Carlo method is used to generate sets of orthogonal trial
functions, Psi_T(J^pi,T), for given quantum numbers in various light p-shell
nuclei. These Psi_T are then used as input to Green's function Monte Carlo
calculations of first, second, and higher excited (J^pi,T) states. Realistic
two- and three-nucleon interactions are used. We find that if the physical
excited state is reasonably narrow, the GFMC energy converges to a stable
result. With the combined Argonne v_18 two-nucleon and Illinois-2 three-nucleon
interactions, the results for many second and higher states in A = 6--8 nuclei
are close to the experimental values.Comment: Revised version with minor changes as accepted by Phys. Rev. C. 11
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