State-of-the-art of beyond mean field theories with nuclear density functionals

Abstract

We present an overview of beyond mean field theories (BMFT) based on the generator coordinate method (GCM) and the recovery of symmetries used in nuclear physics with effective forces. After a reminder of the Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov (HFB) theory a discussion of the shortcomings of any mean field approximation (MFA) is presented. The recovery of the symmetries spontaneously broken in the HFB approach, in particular the angular momentum, is necessary, among others, to describe excited states and transitions. Particle number projection is needed to guarantee the right number of protons and neutrons. Furthermore a projection before the variation prevents the pairing collapse in the weak pairing regime. The lack of fluctuations around the average values of the MFA is a shortcoming of this approach. To build in correlations in BMFT one selects the relevant degrees of freedom: quadrupole, octupole and the pairing vibrations as well as the single particle ones. In the GCM the operators representing these degrees of freedom are used as coordinates to generate a collective subspace. The highly correlated GCM wave function is finally written as a linear combination of a projected basis of this space. The variation of the coefficients of the linear combination leads to the Hill-Wheeler equation. We discuss the classical beta and gamma vibrations by considering the quadrupole operators as coordinates. We present pairing fluctuations by considering the pairing gaps as generator coordinates. Lastly the explicit consideration of the time reversal symmetry breaking in the HFB wave function by the cranking procedure allows the alignment of nucleon pairs opening a new dimension in the BMFT calculations. Abundant calculations with the Gogny force illustrate the state-of-the-art of BMFTs with density functionals. We conclude with a thorough discussion on the potential poles of the theory.