arXiv subjects

A. Rios

Publications and source records attributed to A. Rios.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2017

Comparison of nuclear hamiltonians using spectral function sum rules

Background: The energy weighted sum rules of the single-particle spectral functions provide a quantitative understanding of the fragmentation of nuclear states due to short-range and tensor correlations. Purpose: The aim of this paper is to compare on a quantitative basis the single-particle spectral function generated by different nuclear hamiltonians in symmetric nuclear matter using the first three energy-weighted moments. Method: The spectral functions are calculated in the framework of the self-consistent Green's function approach at finite temperature within a ladder resummation scheme. We analyze the first three moments of the spectral function and connect these to the correlations induced by the interactions between the nucleons. In particular, the variance of the spectral function is directly linked to the dispersive contribution of the self-energy. The discussion is centred around two- and three-body chiral nuclear interactions, with and without renormalization, but we also provide results obtained with the traditional phase-shift-equivalent CD-Bonn and Av18 potentials. Results: The variance of the spectral function is particularly sensitive to the short-range structure of the force, with hard-core interactions providing large variances. Chiral forces yield variances which are an order of magnitude smaller and, when tamed using the similarity renormalization group, the variance reduces significantly and in proportion to the renormalization scale. The presence of three-body forces does not substantially affect the results. Conclusions: The first three moments of the spectral function are useful tools in analysing the importance of correlations in nuclear ground states. In particular, the second-order moment provides a direct insight into dispersive contributions to the self-energy and its value is indicative of the fragmentation of single-particle states.

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arXiv2016

Di-neutrons in neutron matter within Brueckner-Hartree-Fock approach

We investigate the appearance of di-neutron bound states in pure neutron matter within the Brueckner-Hartree-Fock approach at zero temperature. We consider Argonne $v_{18}$ and Paris bare interactions as well as chiral two- and three-nucleon forces. Self-consistent single-particle potentials are calculated controlling explicitly singularities in the $g$ matrix associated with bound states. Di-neutrons are loosely bound, with binding energies below $1$ MeV, but are unambiguously present for Fermi momenta below $1$ fm$^{-1}$ for all interactions. Within the same framework we are able to calculate and characterize di-neutron bound states, obtaining mean radii as high as $\sim 110$ fm. The resulting equations of state and mass-radius relations for pure neutron stars are analyzed including di-neutron contributions.

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arXiv2016

Fission dynamics within time-dependent Hartree-Fock: boost-induced fission

Background: Nuclear fission is a complex large-amplitude collective decay mode in heavy nuclei. Microscopic density functional studies of fission have previously concentrated on adiabatic approaches based on constrained static calculations ignoring dynamical excitations of the fissioning nucleus, and the daughter products. Purpose: To explore the ability of dynamic mean-field methods to describe induced fission processes, using quadrupole boosts in the nuclide $^{240}$Pu as an example. Methods: Quadrupole constrained Hartree-Fock calculations are used to create a potential energy surface. An isomeric state and a state beyond the second barrier peak are excited by means of instantaneous as well as temporally extended gauge boosts with quadrupole shapes. The subsequent deexcitation is studied in a time-dependent Hartree-Fock simulation, with emphasis on fissioned final states. The corresponding fission fragment mass numbers are studied. Results: In general, the energy deposited by the quadrupole boost is quickly absorbed by the nucleus. In instantaneous boosts, this leads to fast shape rearrangements and violent dynamics that can ultimately lead to fission. This is a qualitatively different process than the deformation-induced fission. Boosts induced within a finite time window excite the system in a relatively gentler way, and do induce fission but with a smaller energy deposition. Conclusions: The fission products obtained using boost-induced fission in time-dependent Hartree-Fock are more asymmetric than the fragments obtained in deformation-induced fission, or the corresponding adiabatic approaches.

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arXiv2015

Shapes and Dynamics from the Time-Dependent Mean Field

Explaining observed properties in terms of underlying shape degrees of freedom is a well--established prism with which to understand atomic nuclei. Self--consistent mean--field models provide one tool to understand nuclear shapes, and their link to other nuclear properties and observables. We present examples of how the time--dependent extension of the mean--field approach can be used in particular to shed light on nuclear shape properties, particularly looking at the giant resonances built on deformed nuclear ground states, and at dynamics in highly-deformed fission isomers. Example calculations are shown of $^{28}$Si in the first case, and $^{240}$Pu in the latter case.

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arXiv2015

Fission dynamics within time-dependent Hartree-Fock: deformation-induced fission

Background: Nuclear fission is a complex large-amplitude collective decay mode in heavy nuclei. Microscopic density functional studies of fission have previously concentrated on adiabatic approaches based on constrained static calculations ignoring dynamical excitations of the fissioning nucleus, and the daughter products. Purpose: To explore the ability of dynamic mean-field methods to describe fast fission processes beyond the fission barrier, using the nuclide $^{240}$Pu as an example. Methods: Time-dependent Hartree-Fock calculations based on the Skyrme interaction are used to calculate non-adiabatic fission paths, beginning from static constrained Hartree-Fock calculations. The properties of the dynamic states are interpreted in terms of the nature of their collective motion. Fission product properties are compared to data. Results: Parent nuclei constrained to begin dynamic evolution with a deformation less than the fission barrier exhibit giant-resonance-type behaviour. Those beginning just beyond the barrier explore large amplitude motion but do not fission, whereas those beginning beyond the two-fragment pathway crossing fission to final states which differ according to the exact initial deformation. Conclusions: Time-dependent Hartree-Fock is able to give a good qualitative and quantitative description of fast fission, provided one begins from a sufficiently deformed state.

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arXiv2015

Pairing in high-density neutron matter including short- and long-range correlations

The influence of short-range correlations (SRC) on the spectral distribution of neutrons is incorporated in the solution of the gap equation for the ${}^3P_2-{}^3F_2$ coupled channel in pure neutron matter at high density. This effect is studied for three different realistic interactions. The gap in this channel is strongly suppressed by these correlations but does not vanish. For a consistent treatment we also include for the first time the effect of long-range correlations (LRC) by incorporating polarization terms in addition to the bare interaction. This allows the neutrons to exchange density and spin fluctuations governed by the strength of Landau parameters with values that are consistent with the available literature. While these LRC have an antiscreening tendency, they only slightly increase the gap in the ${}^3P_2-{}^3F_2$ coupled channel for all three realistic interactions as long as SRC are included. All three interactions generate maximum gaps around 0.1 to 0.2 MeV at most with a small dependence on the hardness of the interaction. These results are relevant for the cooling scenarios of neutron stars, in particular the young neutron star in Cassiopeia A.

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arXiv2014

Isovector properties of the Gogny interaction

We analyse the properties of the Gogny interaction in homogeneous matter, with special emphasis on the isovector sector. We provide analytical expressions for both the single-particle and the bulk properties of symmetric and asymmetric nuclear matter. We perform an extensive analysis of these properties using 11 parametrizations extracted from the literature. We find that most Gogny interactions have low values for the slope of the symmetry energy, outside the range of empirically extracted values. As a test of extreme isospin dependence, we also study the mass-radius relations implied by the different Gogny equations of state. Our results call for a more careful fitting procedure of the isovector properties of Gogny functionals.

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arXiv2014

Covariance analysis of finite temperature density functional theory: symmetric nuclear matter

We study symmetric nuclear matter at finite temperature, with particular emphasis on the liquid-gas phase transition. We use a standard covariance analysis to propagate statistical uncertainties from the density functional to the thermodynamic properties. We use four functionals with known covariance matrices to obtain as wide a set of results as possible. Our findings suggest that thermodynamical properties are very well constrained by fitting data at zero temperature. The propagated statistical errors in the liquid-gas phase transition parameters are relatively small.

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arXiv2014

Pairing in bulk nuclear matter beyond BCS

The influence of short-range correlations on the spectral distribution of neutrons is incorporated in the solution of the gap equation for the ${}^3P_2-{}^3F_2$ coupled channel in pure neutron matter. This effect is studied for different realistic interactions including one based on chiral perturbation theory. The gap in this channel vanishes at all relevant densities due to the treatment of these correlations. We also consider the effect of long-range correlations by including polarization terms in addition to the bare interaction which allow the neutrons to exchange density and spin fluctuations governed by the strength of Landau parameters allowed to have reasonable values consistent with the available literature. Preliminary results indicate that reasonable values of these parameters do not generate a gap in the ${}^3P_2-{}^3F_2$ coupled channel either for all three realistic interactions although the pairing interaction becomes slightly more attractive.

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arXiv2014

Density and isospin asymmetry dependence of high-momentum components

We study the one-body momentum distribution at different densities in nuclear matter, with special emphasis on its components at high momentum. Explicit calculations for finite neutron-proton asymmetry, based on the ladder self-consistent Green's function approach, allow us to access the isospin dependence of momentum distributions and elucidate their role in neutron-rich systems. Comparisons with the deuteron momentum distribution indicate that a substantial proportion of high-momentum components are dominated by tensor correlations. We identify the density dependence of these tensor correlations in the momentum distributions. Further, we find that high-momentum components are determined by the density of each sub-species and we provide a new isospin asymmetry scaling of these components. We use different realistic nucleon-nucleon interactions to quantify the model dependence of our results.

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arXiv2013

Cause of the charge radius isotope shift at the \emph{N}=126 shell gap

We discuss the mechanism causing the `kink' in the charge radius isotope shift at the N=126 shell closure. The occupation of the 1$i_{11/2}$ neutron orbital is the decisive factor for reproducing the experimentally observed kink. We investigate whether this orbital is occupied or not by different Skyrme effective interactions as neutrons are added above the shell closure. Our results demonstrate that several factors can cause an appreciable occupation of the 1$i_{11/2}$ neutron orbital, including the magnitude of the spin-orbit field, and the isoscalar effective mass of the Skyrme interaction. The symmetry energy of the effective interaction has little influence upon its ability to reproduce the kink.

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arXiv2013

The electric dipole response of $^{76}$Se above 4 MeV

The dipole response of $^{76}_{34}$Se in the energy range 4 to 9 MeV has been analyzed using a $(\vecγ,γ')$ polarized photon scattering technique, performed at the High Intensity $γ$-Ray Source facility, to complement previous work performed using unpolarized photons. The results of this work offer both an enhanced sensitivity scan of the dipole response and an unambiguous determination of the parities of the observed J=1 states. The dipole response is found to be dominated by $E1$ excitations, and can reasonably be attributed to a pygmy dipole resonance. Evidence is presented to suggest that a significant amount of directly unobserved excitation strength is present in the region, due to unobserved branching transitions in the decays of resonantly excited states. The dipole response of the region is underestimated when considering only ground state decay branches. We investigate the electric dipole response theoretically, performing calculations in a 3D cartesian-basis time-dependent Skyrme-Hartree-Fock framework.

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arXiv2012

Why is lead so kinky?

We revisit the problem of the kink in the charge radius shift of neutron-rich even lead isotopes. We show that the ability of a Skyrme force to reproduce the isotope shift is determined by the occupation of the neutron 1i11/2 orbital beyond N=126 and the corresponding change it causes to deeply-bound protons orbitals with a principal quantum number of 1. Given the observed position of the single-particle energies, one must either ensure occupation is allowed through correlations, or not demand that the single-particle energies agree with experimental values at the mean-field level.

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arXiv2012

Comparative study of neutron and nuclear matter with simplified Argonne nucleon-nucleon potentials

We present calculations of the energy per particle of pure neutron and symmetric nuclear matter with simplified Argonne nucleon-nucleon potentials for different many-body theories. We compare critically the Brueckner-Hartree-Fock results to other formalisms, such as the Brueckner-Bethe-Goldstone expansion up to third order, Self-Consistent Green's Functions, Auxiliary Field Diffusion Monte Carlo, and Fermi Hyper Netted Chain. We evaluate the importance of spin-orbit and tensor correlations in the equation of state and find these to be important in a wide range of densities.

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arXiv2011

Self-consistent Green's functions calculation of the nucleon mean-free path

The extension of Green's functions techniques to the complex energy plane provides access to fully dressed quasi-particle properties from a microscopic perspective. Using self-consistent ladder self-energies, we find both spectra and lifetimes of such quasi-particles in nuclear matter. With a consistent choice of the group velocity, the nucleon mean-free path can be computed. Our results indicate that, for energies above 50 MeV at densities close to saturation, a nucleon has a mean-free path of 4 to 5 femtometers.

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arXiv2010

Effective interaction dependence of the liquid-gas phase transition in symmetric nuclear matter

The liquid-gas phase transition for homogeneous symmetric nuclear matter is studied in the mean-field approximation. Critical properties are computed using a comprehensive group of Skyrme and Gogny forces in an effort to elucidate the effective interaction dependence of the results. Analytical models for the thermodynamical and critical properties are discussed and compared to an extensive set of mean-field data. In agreement with these models, a tight correlation is found between the flashing and the critical points. Accurate predictions for the critical temperature, based on saturation properties, can only be obtained after the density dependence of the effective mass is properly taken into account. While the thermodynamical properties coming from different mean-fields do not follow a law of corresponding states, the critical exponents for all the mean-fields have been found to be the same. Their values coincide with those predicted by the Landau mean-field theory of critical phenomena.

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arXiv2009

Depletion of the nuclear Fermi sea

The short-range and tensor components of the bare nucleon-nucleon interaction induce a sizeable depletion of low momenta in the ground state of a nuclear many-body system. The self-consistent Green's function method within the ladder approximation provides an \textit{ab-initio} description of correlated nuclear systems that accounts properly for these effects. The momentum distribution predicted by this approach is analyzed in detail, with emphasis on the depletion of the lowest momentum state. The temperature, density, and nucleon asymmetry (isospin) dependence of the depletion of the Fermi sea is clarified. A connection is established between the momentum distribution and the time-ordered components of the self-energy, which allows for an improved interpretation of the results. The dependence on the underlying nucleon-nucleon interaction provides quantitative estimates of the importance of short-range and tensor correlations in nuclear systems.

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arXiv2008

Liquid-gas phase transition in nuclear matter from realistic many-body approaches

The existence of a liquid-gas phase transition for hot nuclear systems at subsaturation densities is a well established prediction of finite temperature nuclear many-body theory. In this paper, we discuss for the first time the properties of such phase transition for homogeneous nuclear matter within the Self-Consistent Green's Functions approach. We find a substantial decrease of the critical temperature with respect to the Brueckner-Hartree-Fock approximation. Even within the same approximation, the use of two different realistic nucleon-nucleon interactions gives rise to large differences in the properties of the critical point.

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