Symmetry Breaking and Bifurcations in the Periodic Orbit Theory: II -- Spheroidal Cavity --

We derive a semiclassical trace formula for the level density of the three-dimensional spheroidal cavity. To overcome the divergences and discontinuities occurring at bifurcation points and in the spherical limit, the trace integrals over the action-angle variables are performed using an improved stationary phase method. The resulting semiclassical level density oscillations and shell energies are in good agreement with quantum-mechanical results. We find that the births of three-dimensional orbits through the bifurcations of planar orbits in the equatorial plane lead to considerable enhancement of shell effect for superdeformed shapes.Comment: 49 pages, 18 figures, using PTPTeX.cls(included), submitted to Prog. Theor. Phy

Stability and Symmetry Breaking in Metal Nanowires

A general linear stability analysis of simple metal nanowires is presented using a continuum approach which correctly accounts for material-specific surface properties and electronic quantum-size effects. The competition between surface tension and electron-shell effects leads to a complex landscape of stable structures as a function of diameter, cross section, and temperature. By considering arbitrary symmetry-breaking deformations, it is shown that the cylinder is the only generically stable structure. Nevertheless, a plethora of structures with broken axial symmetry is found at low conductance values, including wires with quadrupolar, hexapolar and octupolar cross sections. These non-integrable shapes are compared to previous results on elliptical cross sections, and their material-dependent relative stability is discussed.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figure

Periodic-Orbit Bifurcations and Superdeformed Shell Structure

We have derived a semiclassical trace formula for the level density of the three-dimensional spheroidal cavity. To overcome the divergences occurring at bifurcations and in the spherical limit, the trace integrals over the action-angle variables were performed using an improved stationary phase method. The resulting semiclassical level density oscillations and shell-correction energies are in good agreement with quantum-mechanical results. We find that the bifurcations of some dominant short periodic orbits lead to an enhancement of the shell structure for "superdeformed" shapes related to those known from atomic nuclei.Comment: 4 pages including 3 figure

Nuclear level density in the statistical semiclassical micro-macroscopic approach

Level density $\rho$ is derived for a finite system with strongly interacting nucleons at a given energy E, neutron N and proton Z particle numbers, projection of the angular momentum M, and other integrals of motion, within the semiclassical periodic-orbit theory (POT) beyond the standard Fermi-gas saddle-point method. For large particle numbers, one obtains an analytical expression for the level density which is extended to low excitation energies U in the statistical micro-macroscopic approach (MMA).The interparticle interaction averaged over particle numbers is taken into account in terms of the extended Thomas-Fermi component of the POT. The shell structure of spherical and deformed nuclei is taken into account in the level density. The MMA expressions for the level density $\rho$ reaches the well-known macroscopic Fermi-gas asymptote for large excitation energies U and the finite combinatoric power-expansion limit for low energies U. We compare our MMA results for the averaged level density with the experimental data obtained from the known excitation energy spectra by using the sample method under statistical and plateau conditions. Fitting the MMA $\rho$ to these experimental data on the averaged level density by using only one free physical parameter - inverse level density parameter K - for several nuclei and their long isotope chain at low excitation energies U, one obtains the results for K. These values of K might be much larger than those deduced from neutron resonances. The shell, isotopic asymmetry, and pairing effects are significant for low excitation energies.Comment: 31 pages, 7 figures, 1 tabl

Paring correlations within the micro-macroscopic approach for the level density

Level density $\rho(E,N,Z)$ is calculated for the two-component close- and open-shell nuclei with a given energy $E$, and neutron $N$ and proton $Z$ numbers, taking into account pairing effects within the microscopic-macroscopic approach (MMA). These analytical calculations have been carried out by using the semiclassical statistical mean-field approximations beyond the saddle-point method of the Fermi gas model in a low excitation-energies range. The level density $\rho$, obtained as function of the system entropy $S$, depends essentially on the condensation energy $E_{\rm cond}$ through the excitation energy $U$ in super-fluid nuclei. The simplest super-fluid approach, based on the BCS theory, accounts for a smooth temperature dependence of the pairing gap $\Delta$ due to particle number fluctuations. Taking into account the pairing effects in magic or semi-magic nuclei, excited below neutron resonances, one finds a notable pairing phase transition.Pairing correlations sometimes improve significantly the comparison with experimental data.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, 2 table

Microscopic-macroscopic level densities for low excitation energies

Level density $\rho(E,{\bf Q})$ is derived within the micro-macroscopic approximation (MMA) for a system of strongly interacting Fermi particles with the energy $E$ and additional integrals of motion ${\bf Q}$, in line with several topics of the universal and fruitful activity of A.S. Davydov. Within the extended Thomas Fermi and semiclassical periodic orbit theory beyond the Fermi-gas saddle-point method we obtain $\rho\propto I_\nu(S)/S^\nu$, where $I_\nu(S)$ is the modified Bessel function of the entropy $S$. For small shell-structure contribution one finds $\nu=\kappa/2+1$, where $\kappa$ is the number of additional integrals of motion. This integer number is a dimension of ${\bf Q}$, ${\bf Q}=\{N, Z, ...\}$ for the case of two-component atomic nuclei, where $N$ and $Z$ are the numbers of neutron and protons, respectively. For much larger shell structure contributions, one obtains, $\nu=\kappa/2+2$. The MMA level density $\rho$ reaches the well-known Fermi gas asymptote for large excitation energies, and the finite micro-canonical combinatoric limit for low excitation energies. The additional integrals of motion can be also the projection of the angular momentum of a nuclear system for nuclear rotations of deformed nuclei, number of excitons for collective dynamics, and so on. Fitting the MMA total level density, $\rho(E,{\bf Q})$, for a set of the integrals of motion ${\bf Q}=\{N, Z\}$, to experimental data on a long nuclear isotope chain for low excitation energies, one obtains the results for the inverse level-density parameter $K$, which differs significantly from those of neutron resonances, due to shell, isotopic asymmetry, and pairing effects.Comment: 24 pages, 4 figures, 1 table. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:2109.0183

Semiclassical approach to the low-lying collective excitations in nuclei

For low-lying collective excitations we derived the inertia within the semiclassical Gutzwiller approach to the onebody Green’s function at lowest orders in h. The excitation energies, reduced probabilities and energy-weighted sum rules are in agreement with main features of the experimental data