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Carlo Barbieri

Publications and source records attributed to Carlo Barbieri.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Time-ordered Diagrammatic Monte Carlo for atomic nuclei

Diagrammatic Monte Carlo provides a systematically improvable framework for stochastically resumming many-body expansions to high orders through direct sampling of diagram topologies. We advance our earlier work by introducing a novel time-ordered Diagrammatic Monte Carlo algorithm for the single-particle Green's function. The algorithm is tailored to finite nuclei, formulated in discrete model spaces and applicable to arbitrary two-body interactions. The new time-ordered diagrammatic Monte Carlo algorithm is based on the on-the-fly evaluation of time-ordered Goldstone diagrams, avoiding explicit diagram enumeration and expensive frequency integration. We show the algorithm by computing ${}^{16}$O up to fifth order in a reduced model space using optimized reference state orbitals and including effective three-body forces. Benchmarking against established truncation schemes in ab initio nuclear theory demonstrates its potential to overcome the limitations of current many-body approaches.

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Addressing the ground state of the deuteron by physics-informed neural networks

Machine learning techniques have proven to be effective in addressing the structure of atomic nuclei. Physics$-$Informed Neural Networks (PINNs) are a promising machine learning technique suitable for solving integro-differential problems such as the many-body Schr\"odinger problem. So far, there has been no demonstration of extracting nuclear eigenstates using such method. Here, we tackle realistic nucleon-nucleon interaction in momentum space, including models with strong high-momentum correlations, and demonstrate highly accurate results for the deuteron. We further provide additional benchmarks in coordinate space. We introduce an expression for the variational energy that enters the loss function, which can be evaluated efficiently within the PINNs framework. Results are in excellent agreement with proven numerical methods, with a relative error between the value of the predicted binding energy by the PINN and the numerical benchmark of the order of $10^{-6}$. Our approach paves the way for the exploitation of PINNs to solve more complex atomic nuclei.

physics.comp-ph

Gorkov algebraic diagrammatic construction for infinite nuclear matter

We propose a novel many-body truncation for Gorkov self-consistent Green's function (SCGF) theory where pairing correlations are handled at first order, while dynamical correlations are described using the particle-number-conserving Dyson-SCGF scheme up to third order in the algebraic diagrammatic construction. The new method is enabled by the introduction of a scheme that allows to approximate the Gorkov propagator in terms of a particle-number-conserving optimized reference state. The approach provides state-of-the-art predictions of the equation of state and spectral properties of infinite nuclear matter at zero temperature and in the presence of pairing. We find satisfactory results using modern saturating Hamiltonians at next-to-next-to-leading order in chiral effective field theory.

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Direct proton transfer on $^{46}$Ar supports the presence of a charge density bubble linked to a novel nuclear structure below $^{48}$Ca

The $^{46}$Ar($^3$He,d)$^{47}$K reaction was performed in inverse kinematics using a radioactive $^{46}$Ar beam produced by the SPIRAL1 facility at GANIL and a cryogenic $^{3}$He target. The AGATA-MUGAST-VAMOS setup allowed the coincident measurement of the $\gamma$ rays, deuterons and recoiling $^{47}$K isotopes produced by the reaction. The relative cross sections towards the proton-addition states in $^{47}$K point towards a depletion of the $\pi s_{1/2}$ shell. The experimental findings are in good agreement with ab initio calculations, which predict that $^{46}$Ar exhibits a charge density bubble associated with a pronounced proton closed-shell character.

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Diagrammatic Monte Carlo for Finite Systems at Zero Temperature

High-order virtual excitations play an important role in microscopic models of nuclear reactions at intermediate energies. However, the factorial growth of their complexity has prevented their consistent inclusion in ab initio many-body calculations. For infinite systems at finite temperature, such drawbacks can be overcome using diagrammatic Monte Carlo techniques to resum entire series of Feynman diagrams. We present a diagrammatic Monte Carlo algorithm that can be applied to self-bound systems with discrete energy levels at zero temperature, and demonstrate its potential for the Richardson model of nuclear pairing. We show that sampling the topological space of diagrams allows the inclusion of high-order excitations that are neglected in state-of-the-art approximations used in nuclear physics and quantum chemistry. We propose that sampling the diagrammatic space can overcome the long-standing gap between our microscopic understanding of structure and reactions in nuclear physics.

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Ab initio Green's functions approach for homogeneous nuclear matter

Homogeneous nuclear matter is investigated using the \textit{ab initio} Self-consistent Green's function (SCGF) approach with nuclear interactions based on chiral effective field theory. The employed method, which combines the state-of-the-art algebraic diagrammatic construction approximation at third order with Gorkov correlations, is capable of computing both the equation of state (EOS) and single-particle properties of nuclear matter. The EOS calculated with our approach and coupled-cluster theory are shown to agree very well. The one-nucleon spectral functions and the momentum distributions are discussed to gain insights into the dynamics of the interacting nuclear matter.

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Simulation of a Three-Nucleons System Transition on Quantum Circuits

Quantum computers have proven to be effective in simulating many quantum systems. Simulating nuclear processes and state preparation poses significant challenges, even for traditional supercomputers. This study demonstrates the feasibility of a complete simulation of a nuclear transition, including the preparation of both ground and first excited states. To tackle the complexity of strong interactions between two and three nucleons, the states are modeled on the tritium nucleus. Both the initial and final states are represented using quantum circuits with variational quantum algorithms and inductive biases. Describing the spin-isospin states requires four qubits, and a parameterized quantum circuit that exploits a total of 16 parameters is initialized. The estimated energy has a relative error of approximately 2% for the ground state and about 10% for the first excited state of the system. The simulation estimates the transition probability between the two states as a function of the dipole polarization angle. This work marks a first step towards leveraging digital quantum computers to simulate nuclear physics.

quant-ph

Expansion of one-, two- and three-body matrix elements on a generic spherical basis for nuclear ab initio calculations

Ab initio studies of atomic nuclei are based on Hamiltonians including one-, two- and three-body operators with very complicated structures. Traditionally, matrix elements of such operators are expanded on a Harmonic Oscillator single-particle basis, which allows for a simple separation of the center-of-mass motion from the intrinsic one. A few recent investigations have showed that the use of different single-particle bases can bring significant advantages to numerical nuclear structure computations. In this work, the complete analytical expression of the Hamiltonian matrix elements expanded on a generic spherical basis is presented for the first time. This will allow systematic studies aimed at the determination of optimal nuclear bases.

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Microscopic optical potentials for medium-mass isotopes derived at the first order of the Watson multiple scattering theory

We perform a first-principle calculation of optical potentials for nucleon elastic scattering off medium-mass isotopes. Fully based on a saturating chiral Hamiltonian, the optical potentials are derived by folding nuclear density distributions computed with ab initio self-consistent Green's function theory with a nucleon-nucleon $t$ matrix computed with a consistent chiral interaction. The dependence on the folding interaction as well as the convergence of the target densities are investigated. Numerical results are presented and discussed for differential cross sections and analyzing powers, with focus on elastic proton scattering off Calcium and Nickel isotopes. Our optical potentials generally show a remarkable agreement with the available experimental data for laboratory energies in the range 65-200 MeV. We study the evolution of the scattering observables with increasing proton-neutron asymmetry by computing theoretical predictions of the cross section and analyzing power over the Calcium and Nickel isotopic chains.

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Gorkov algebraic diagrammatic construction formalism at third order

Background. The Gorkov approach to self-consistent Green's function theory has been formulated in [V. Somà, T. Duguet, C. Barbieri, Phys. Rev. C 84, 064317 (2011)]. Over the past decade, it has become a method of reference for first-principle computations of semi-magic nuclear isotopes. The currently available implementation is limited to a second-order self-energy and neglects particle-number non-conserving terms arising from contracting three-particle forces with anomalous propagators. For nuclear physics applications, this is sufficient to address first-order energy differences, ground-state radii and moments on an accurate enough basis. However, addressing absolute binding energies, fine spectroscopic details of $N\pm1$ particle systems or delicate quantities such as second-order energy differences associated to pairing gaps, requires to go to higher truncation orders. Purpose. The formalism is extended to third order in the algebraic diagrammatic construction (ADC) expansion with two-body Hamiltonians. Methods. The expansion of Gorkov propagators in Feynman diagrams is combined with the algebraic diagrammatic construction up to the third order as an organization scheme to generate the Gorkov self-energy. Results. Algebraic expressions for the static and dynamic contributions to the self-energy, along with equations for the matrix elements of the Gorkov eigenvalue problem, are derived. It is first done for a general basis before specifying the set of equations to the case of spherical systems displaying rotational symmetry. Workable approximations to the full self-consistency problem are also elaborated on. The formalism at third order it thus complete for a general two-body Hamiltonian. Conclusion. Working equations for the full Gorkov-ADC(3) are now available for numerical implementation.

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Quantum Monte Carlo in Configuration Space with Three-Nucleon Forces

Neutron matter, through its connection to neutron stars as well as systems like cold atom gases, is one of the most interesting yet computationally accessible systems in nuclear physics. The Configuration-Interaction Monte Carlo (CIMC) method is a stochastic many-body technique allowing to tackle strongly coupled systems. In contrast to other Quantum Monte Carlo methods employed in nuclear physics, the CIMC method can be formulated directly in momentum space allowing for an efficient use of non-local interactions. In this work we extend CIMC method to include three-nucleon interactions through the normal-ordered two-body approximation. We present results for the equation of state of neutron matter in line with other many-body calculations that employ low resolution chiral interactions, and provide predictions for the momentum distribution and the static structure factor.

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Moving away from singly-magic nuclei with Gorkov Green's function theory

Ab initio calculations of bulk nuclear properties (ground-state energies, root mean square charge radii and charge density distributions) are presented for seven complete isotopic chains around calcium, from argon to chromium. Calculations are performed within the Gorkov self-consistent Green's function approach at second order and make use of two state-of-the-art two- plus three-nucleon Hamiltonians, $NN$+$3N\text{(lnl)}$ and NNLO$_{\text{sat}}$. An overall good agreement with available experimental data is found, in particular for differential energies (charge radii) when the former (latter) interaction is employed. Remarkably, neutron magic numbers $N=28,32,34$ emerge and evolve following experimental trends. In contrast, pairing gaps are systematically underestimated. General features of the isotopic dependence of charge radii are also reproduced, as well as charge density distributions. A deterioration of the theoretical description is observed for certain nuclei and ascribed to the inefficient account of (static) quadrupole correlation in the present many-body truncation scheme. In order to resolve these limitations, we advocate the extension of the formalism towards incorporating breaking of rotational symmetry or, alternatively, performing a stochastic sampling of the self-energy.

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Examining the $N$ = 28 shell closure through high-precision mass measurements of $^{46-48}$Ar

The strength of the $N$ = 28 magic number in neutron-rich argon isotopes is examined through high-precision mass measurements of $^{46-48}$Ar, performed with the ISOLTRAP mass spectrometer at ISOLDE/CERN. The new mass values are up to 90 times more precise than previous measurements. While they suggest the persistence of the $N$ = 28 shell closure for argon, we show that this conclusion has to be nuanced in light of the wealth of spectroscopic data and theoretical investigations performed with the \emph{SDPF-U} phenomenological shell model interaction. Our results are also compared with \emph{ab initio} calculations using the Valence Space In-Medium Similarity Renormalization Group and the Self-Consistent Green's Function approaches. Both calculations provide a very good account of mass systematics at and around $Z$ = 18 and, generally, a consistent description of the physics in this region. This combined analysis indicates that $^{46}$Ar is the transition between the closed-shell $^{48}$Ca and collective $^{44}$S.

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Core-polarization effects and effective charges in O and Ni isotopes from chiral interactions

Most nuclear structure calculations, even for full configuration interaction approaches, are performed within truncated model spaces. These require consistent transformations of the Hamiltonian and operators to account for the missing physics beyond the active space, so that several recent efforts have been devoted to find compatible derivations of the effective operators. The effective charges employed in the shell-model calculations, and fitted to reproduce experimental data, can be seen as the phenomenological counterpart of such renormalization for electromagnetic operators. Here, we make a first step to lay the bases for their microscopic derivation in the context of the Self-Consistent Green's Function approach. We compute electric quadrupole (E2) effective charges from microscopic theory by coupling the single-nucleon propagators to core-polarization phonons, derived consistently from a realistic nuclear interaction. The polarization effects are included by evaluating the Feynman diagrams that couple the internal multi-nucleon configurations to the single-particle transitions induced by the electromagnetic operator. The effective charges for E2 static moments and transitions are computed for selected isotopes in the Oxygen ($^{14}\text{O}$, $^{16}$O, $^{22}$O and $^{24}$O) and Nickel ($^{48}$Ni, $^{56}$Ni, $^{68}$Ni and $^{78}$Ni) chains. The values found are orbital dependent especially for the neutron effective charges, which show also a characteristic decreasing trend along each isotopic chain. In general, the values are compatible with the phenomenological ones commonly used for shell-model studies in the $0p\, 1s\, 0d$ and $1p\,0f\,0g_{\frac{9}{2}}$ valence spaces.The phenomenological shell-model effective charges can be explained through \textit{ab initio} approaches, where the sole experimental input comes from the fitting of the realistic nuclear interaction.

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Neutrino-nucleus cross section within the extended factorization scheme

The factorization scheme, based on the impulse approximation and the spectral function formalism, has been recently generalized to allow the description of electromagnetic nuclear interactions driven by two-nucleon currents. We have extended this framework to the case of weak charged and neutral currents and carried out calculations of the double-differential neutrino-carbon and neutrino-oxygen cross sections using two different models of the target spectral functions. The results, showing a moderate dependence on the input spectral function, confirm that our approach provides a consistent treatment of all reaction mechanisms contributing to the signals detected by accelerator-based neutrino experiments.

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Algebraic diagrammatic construction formalism with three-body interactions

Self-consistent Green's function theory has recently been extended to the basic formalism needed to account for three-body interactions [A. Carbone, A. Cipollone, C. Barbieri, A. Rios, and A. Polls, (Phys. Rev. C 88, 054326 (2013))]. The contribution of three-nucleon forces has so far been included in ab initio calculations on nuclear matter and finite nuclei only as averaged two-nucleon forces. We derive the working equations for all possible two- and three-nucleon terms that enter the expansion of the self-energy up to the third order, thus including the interaction-irreducible (i.e., not averaged) diagrams with three-nucleon forces that have been previously neglected. We employ the algebraic diagrammatic construction up to the third order as an organization scheme for generating a non perturbative self-energy, in which ring (particle-hole) and ladder (particle-particle) diagrams are resummed to all orders. We derive expressions of the static and dynamic self-energy up to the third order, by taking into account the set of diagrams required when either the skeleton or nonskeleton expansions of the single-particle propagator are assumed. A hierarchy of importance among different diagrams is revealed, and a particular emphasis is given to a third-order diagram (see Fig. 2c) that is expected to play a significant role among those featuring an interaction-irreducible three-nucleon force. A consistent formalism to resum at infinite order correlations induced by three-nucleon forces in the self-consistent Green's function theory is now available and ready to be implemented in the many-body solvers.

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Recent Applications of Self-Consistent Green's Function Theory to Nuclei

We discuss recent \emph{ab initio} calculations based on self-consistent Green's function theory. It is found that a simple extension of the formalism to account for two-nucleon scattering outside the model space allows to calculate non-soft interactions. With this, it is possible to make predictions for Lattice QCD potentials, obtained so far at pion masses of $m_π= 0.47$GeV/c$^2$. More traditional calculations that use saturating chiral EFT forces yield a good description of nuclear responses and nucleon knockout spectroscopy.

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