arXiv subjects

Anna E. McCoy

Publications and source records attributed to Anna E. McCoy.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Future directions in nuclear $β$ decay at FRIB and beyond

Motivated by the opportunities presented for studies relevant to nuclear structure, astrophysics, and fundamental symmetries with nuclear $β$ decay, the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) Theory Alliance topical program ``Future Directions in Nuclear $β$ Decays at FRIB'' was held in September of 2025. This white paper summarizes the main points of discussion over the two-week program, and it aims to provide a snapshot of the current status of the field while also highlighting important questions and opportunities for future work. We provide an overview of the experimental tools and techniques that enable modern $β$ decay studies, discuss the current state of nuclear many-body approaches used to study $β$ decays, and highlight the important science questions that can be addressed by weak decays.

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arXiv2026

Symplectic no-core configuration interaction framework for nuclear structure

We present the symplectic no-core configuration interaction (SpNCCI) framework, in which the nuclear many-body problem is solved a symmetry-adapted basis that explicitly encodes approximate symmetries associated with nuclear collectivity and deformation. In this framework, calculations are carried out in a basis organized into Sp(3,R) irreducible representations (irreps), each of which can be expressed as an infinite tower of U(3) irreps. In this framework, matrices of realistic relative two-body operators, such as the nuclear Hamiltonian, are computed directly in the Sp(3,R) many-body basis, obviating the need to expand all Sp(3,R) many-body states in, e.g., a U(3)-coupled configuration basis. Instead, many-body matrix elements are obtained via a recurrence relation that expresses a given matrix element in terms of matrix elements between basis states with fewer oscillator quanta. To use this recurrence method for computing matrix elements of relative two-body operators, we must first expand each operator into components of U(3) tensors. To this end, we present a method for decomposing arbitrary operators into U(3) tensor components.

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arXiv2026

A modern Fortran library for SU(3) coupling and recoupling coefficients

The group $\mathrm{SU}(3)$ has applications in several branches of physics. Many of these applications depend on availability of $\mathrm{SU}(3)$ coupling and recoupling coefficients. We have developed a modern Fortran library for calculation of the coupling coefficients, for both the $\mathrm{SU}(3)\supset\mathrm{U}(1)\times\mathrm{SU}(2)$ and $\mathrm{SU}(3)\supset\mathrm{SO}(3)$ group chains, and the recoupling coefficients. The library implements the algorithms of Draayer, Akiyama, and Millener, which are laid out in the paper. Performance of the library has been tested and compared to the Akiyama-Draayer (AD) library implementing the same algorithms as well as to a more recent implementation. Our library works for a larger range of $\mathrm{SU}(3)$ quantum numbers and provides more accurate coupling coefficients with large quantum numbers than the AD library.

physics.comp-ph↗

arXiv2024

Intruder band mixing in an ab initio description of 12Be

The spectrum of 12Be exhibits exotic features, e.g., an intruder ground state and shape coexistence, normally associated with the breakdown of a shell closure. While previous phenomenological treatments indicated the ground state has substantial contributions from intruder configurations, it is only with advances in computational abilities and improved interactions that this intruder mixing is observed in ab initio no-core shell model (NCSM) predictions. In this work, we extract electromagnetic observables and symmetry decompositions from the NCSM wave functions to demonstrate that the low-lying positive parity spectrum can be explained in terms of mixing of rotational bands with very different intrinsic structure coexisting within the low-lying spectrum. These observed bands exhibit an approximate SU(3) symmetry and are qualitatively consistent with Elliott model predictions.

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arXiv2020

Rotational bands beyond the Elliott model

Rotational bands are commonplace in the spectra of atomic nuclei. Inspired by early descriptions of these bands by quadrupole deformations of a liquid drop, Elliott constructed a discrete nucleon representations of $\mathrm{SU}(3)$ from fermionic creation and annihilation operators. Ever since, Elliott's model has been foundational to descriptions of rotation in nuclei. Later work, however, suggested the symplectic extension $\mathrm{Sp}(3,R)$ provides a more unified picture. We decompose no-core shell-model nuclear wave functions into symmetry-defined subspaces for several beryllium isotopes, as well as $^{20}$Ne, using the quadratic Casimirs of both Elliott's $\mathrm{SU}(3)$ and $\mathrm{Sp}(3,R)$. The band structure, delineated by strong $B(E2)$ values, has a more consistent description in $\mathrm{Sp}(3,R)$ rather than $\mathrm{SU}(3)$. {In particular, we confirm previous work finding in some nuclides strongly connected upper and lower bands with the same underlying symplectic structure.

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arXiv2018

Symplectic no-core configuration interaction framework for ab initio nuclear structure

We introduce a symplectic no-core configuration interaction (SpNCCI) framework for ab initio nuclear structure calculations, in a correlated many-body basis which encodes an approximate Sp(3,R) symmetry of the nucleus. Such a scheme potentially provides a means of restricting the many-body space to include only those highly-excited configurations which dominantly contribute to the nuclear wave function. We examine the symplectic symmetry structure arising in an illustrative ab initio SpNCCI calculation for 6Li. We observe both the dominance of symplectic symmetry in individual wave functions and the emergence of families of states related by symplectic symmetry.

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