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Chencan Wang

Publications and source records attributed to Chencan Wang.

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In-medium nucleon-nucleon cross sections from relativistic ab initio calculations

The in-medium nucleon-nucleon scattering cross section is a pivotal quantity for studying the medium effects of strong interaction, and its precise knowledge is critical for understanding the equation of state for dense matter, intermediate-energy heavy-ion collision dynamics, and related phenomena. In this work, we perform a microscopic investigation of in-medium nucleon-nucleon scattering cross sections, by utilizing the relativistic Brueckner-Hartree-Fock (RBHF) theory with the Bonn potential. The fully incorporation of both positive- and negative-energy states in the RBHF solutions allows us to determine the single-particle potentials, the effective G matrix, and the scattering cross section uniquely. The momentum, density, and isospin dependence of the cross section for pp, nn, and np scattering are studied in detail. Our results provide a solid foundation for future parametrization studies of multiparameter dependency of total scattering cross sections.

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Microscopic optical potential from the relativistic Brueckner-Hartree-Fock theory: Proton-nucleus scattering

A relativistic microscopic optical model potential for nucleon-nucleus scattering is developed based on the \emph{ab initio} relativistic Brueckner-Hartree-Fock (RBHF) theory with the improved local density approximation, which is abbreviated as the RBOM potential. Both real and imaginary parts of the single-particle potentials in symmetric and asymmetric nuclear matter at various densities are determined uniquely in the full Dirac space. The density distributions of the target nuclei are calculated by the covariant energy density functional theory with the density functional PC-PK1. The central and spin-orbit terms of the optical potentials are quantitatively consistent with the relativistic phenomenological optical potentials. The performance of the RBOM potential is evaluated by considering proton scattering with incident energy $E\leq 200$ MeV on five target nuclei, $\prescript{208}{}{\text{Pb}}$, $\prescript{120}{}{\text{Sn}}$, $\prescript{90}{}{\text{Zr}}$, $\prescript{48}{}{\text{Ca}}$, and $\prescript{40}{}{\text{Ca}}$. Scattering observables including the elastic scattering angular distributions, analyzing powers, spin rotation functions, and reaction cross sections are analyzed. Theoretical predictions show good agreements with the experimental data and the results derived from phenomenological optical potentials. We anticipate that the RBOM potential can provide reference for other phenomenological and microscopic optical model potentials, as well as reliable descriptions for nucleon scattering on exotic nuclei in the era of rare-isotope beams.

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Tensor-force effects on nuclear matter in relativistic ab initio theory

Within the relativistic Brueckner-Hartree-Fock theory in the full Dirac space, the tensor-force effects on infinite nuclear matter are elucidated by subtracting the matrix elements of tensor forces from the realistic nucleon-nucleon interaction. The tensor-force effects for the binding energy per particle of symmetric nuclear matter (SNM) as well as the symmetry energy are attractive and are more pronounced around the empirical saturation density, while the tensor forces have little impact on the pure neutron matter. By tuning the tensor-force strength, an infinite (negative) scattering length in the spin-triplet channel is found. This locates the dilute SNM with only the $^3S_1$-$^3D_1$ channel interaction at the unitary limit. Its ground-state energy is found proportional to the energy of a free Fermi gas with a scaling factor 0.38, revealing good universal properties. This work paves the way to study the tensor-force effects in neutron stars as well as finite nuclei from realistic nucleon-nucleon interactions, highlights the role of the tensor force on the deviation of the nuclear physics to the unitary limit, and provides valuable reference for studies of the four-component unitary Fermi gas.

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Isospin splitting of the Dirac mass probed by the relativistic Brueckner-Hartree-Fock theory in the full Dirac space

The isospin splitting of the Dirac mass obtained with the relativistic Brueckner-Hartree-Fock (RBHF) theory is thoroughly investigated. From the perspective in the full Dirac space, the long-standing controversy between the momentum-independence approximation (MIA) method and the projection method on the isospin splitting of the Dirac mass in asymmetric nuclear matter (ANM) is analyzed in detail. We find that, the \textit{assumption procedure} of the MIA method, which assumes that the single-particle potentials are momentum independent, is not a sufficient condition that directly leads to the wrong sign of the isospin splitting of the Dirac mass, while the \textit{extraction procedure} of the MIA method, which extracts the single-particle potentials from the single-particle potential energy, leads to the wrong sign. By approximately solving the set of equations involved in the \textit{extraction procedure}, a formal expression of the Dirac mass is obtained. The wrong isospin splitting of the Dirac mass is mainly caused by that the \textit{extraction procedure} forcely assumes the momentum dependence of the single-particle potential energy to be a quadratic form where the strength is solely determined by the constant scalar potential.

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Low-momentum relativistic nucleon-nucleon potentials I: Nuclear matter

A series of relativistic one-boson-exchange potentials for two-nucleon system, denoted as OBEP$Λ$, is constructed with a momentum cutoff $Λ$ ranging from $\infty$ to 2 fm$^{-1}$. These potentials are developed by simultaneous fitting to nucleon-nucleon ($NN$) scattering phase shifts, low-energy scattering length, effective range, and the binding energy of the deuteron. The momentum-space matrix elements of the low-momentum OBEP$Λ$ ($Λ\leqslant 3$ fm$^{-1}$) demonstrate consistency with the universal behaviors observed in other realistic $NN$ potentials evolved by renormalization group methods. These OBEP$Λ$s are applied to calculate the equation of state of symmetric nuclear matter (SNM) within either the nonrelativistic (NR) Brueckner-Hartree-Fock (BHF) or relativistic Brueckner-Hartree-Fock (RBHF) frameworks. The results show that the saturation properties of SNM are reproduced qualitatively from the RBHF calculation, but not from the NR-BHF calculation. This study highlights the relativistic mechanism in explaining the saturation properties of nuclear matter. The remaining discrepancy in reproducing empirical saturation properties in the RBHF calculation using the OBEP$Λ$s signals the necessity of including three-nucleon correlations or genuine three-nucleon forces.

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Neutron-proton effective mass splitting in neutron-rich matter

Nucleon effective masses in neutron-rich matter are studied with the relativistic Brueckner-Hartree-Fock (RBHF) theory in the full Dirac space. The neutron and proton effective masses for symmetric nuclear matter are 0.80 times rest mass, which agrees well with the empirical values. In neutron-rich matter, the effective mass of the neutron is found larger than that of the proton, and the neutron-proton effective mass splittings at the empirical saturation density are predicted as $0.187α$ with $α$ being the isospin asymmetry parameter. The result is compared to other ab initio calculations and is consistent with the constraints from the nuclear reaction and structure measurements, such as the nucleon-nucleus scattering, the giant resonances of $^{208}$Pb, and the Hugenholtz-Van Hove theorem with systematics of nuclear symmetry energy and its slope. The predictions of the neutron-proton effective mass splitting from the RBHF theory in the full Dirac space might be helpful to constrain the isovector parameters in phenomenological density functionals.

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Hadron-quark phase transition in neutron star by combining the relativistic Brueckner-Hartree-Fock theory and Dyson-Schwinger equation approach

Starting from the relativistic Brueckner-Hartree-Fock theory for nuclear matter and the Dyson-Schwinger equation approach for quark matter, the possible hadron-quark phase transition in the interior of a neutron star is explored. The first-order phase transition and crossover are studied by performing the Maxwell construction and three-window construction respectively. The mass-radius relation and the tidal deformability of the hybrid star are calculated and compared to the joint mass-radius observation of a neutron star and the constraints from gravitational wave detection. For the Maxwell construction, no stable quark core is found in the interior of a neutron star. For the three-window construction, the parameters of the smooth interpolation function are chosen in such a way to keep the thermodynamic stability and lead to a moderate crossover density region. To support a two-solar-mass neutron star under the three-window construction, the effective width of medium screening effects in quark matter should be around $0.35$ GeV.

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Properties of $^{208}$Pb predicted from the relativistic equation of state in the full Dirac space

Relativistic Brueckner-Hartree-Fock (RBHF) theory in the full Dirac space allows one to determine uniquely the momentum dependence of scalar and vector components of the single-particle potentials. In order to extend this new method from nuclear matter to finite nuclei, as a first step, properties of $^{208}$Pb are explored by using the microscopic equation of state for asymmetric nuclear matter and a liquid droplet model. The neutron and proton density distributions, the binding energies, the neutron and proton radii, and the neutron skin thickness in $^{208}$Pb are calculated. In order to further compare the charge densities predicted from the RBHF theory in the full Dirac space with the experimental charge densities, the differential cross sections and the electric charge form factors in the elastic electron-nucleus scattering are obtained by using the phase-shift analysis method. The results from the RBHF theory are in good agreement with the experimental data. In addition, the uncertainty arising from variations of the surface term parameter $f_0$ in the liquid droplet model is also discussed.

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Pion Exchange Interaction in Bonn Potential and Relativistic and Non-relativistic Framework in Nuclear Matter

As the residual interaction of quantum chromodynamics in low-energy region, the nucleon-nucleon (NN) potential can only be exactly described by the model picture now. In the Bonn potential, one of the most well-known NN interaction models, the nucleons interact with each other through exchanging the pion and several heavier mesons, where the pion plays an essential role. It provides a partial contribution of tensor force in the intermediate-range region and the main component in the long-range region in NN potential. However, it is very difficult to be treated in the nuclear many-body system due to its pseudovector or pseudoscalar property. Recently, three high-precision charge-dependent Bonn potentials were proposed with pseudovector coupling types and different pion-nucleon coupling strengths and applied them to study the properties of nuclear matter and neutron stars in the non-relativistic and relativistic frameworks. Furthermore, to properly deal with the strong short-range repulsion and tensor force of the NN potential, some new relativistic {\it ab initio} methods have also been developed in the past decade to discuss the role of pion and relativistic effects in nuclear matter.

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Nuclear Matter and Neutron Stars from Relativistic Brueckner-Hartree-Fock Theory

The momentum and isospin dependence of the single-particle potential for the in-medium nucleon are the key quantities in the Relativistic Brueckner-Hartree-Fock (RBHF) theory. It depends on how to extract the scalar and the vector components of the single-particle potential inside nuclear matter. In contrast to the RBHF calculations in the Dirac space with the positive-energy states (PESs) only, the single-particle potential can be determined in a unique way by the RBHF theory together with the negative-energy states (NESs), i.e., the RBHF theory in the full Dirac space. The saturation properties of symmetric and asymmetric nuclear matter in the full Dirac space are systematically investigated based on the realistic Bonn nucleon-nucleon potentials. In order to further specify the importance of the calculations in the full Dirac space, the neutron star properties are investigated. The direct URCA process in neutron star cooling will happen at density $ρ_{\rm{DURCA}}=0.43,~0.48,~0.52$ fm$^{-3}$ with the proton fractions $Y_{p,\rm{DURCA}}=0.13$. The radii of a $1.4M_\odot$ neutron star are predicated as $R_{1.4M_\odot}=11.97,~12.13,~12.27$ km, and their tidal deformabilities are $Λ_{1.4M_\odot}=376,~405,~433$ for potential Bonn A, B, C. Comparing with the results obtained in the Dirac space with PESs only, full-Dirac-space RBHF calculation predicts the softest symmetry energy which would be more favored by the gravitational waves (GW) detection from GW170817. Furthermore, the results from full-Dirac-space RBHF theory are consistent with the recent astronomical observations of massive neutron stars and simultaneous mass-radius measurement.

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Exploring universal characteristics of neutron star matter with relativistic \textit{ab initio} equations of state

Starting from the relativistic realistic nucleon-nucleon ($NN$) interactions, a newly developed relativistic \textit{ab initio} method, i.e., the relativistic Brueckner-Hartree-Fock (RBHF) theory in the full Dirac space is employed to study the neutron star properties. First, the one-to-one correspondence relation for gravitational redshift and mass is established and used to infer the mass of isolated neutron stars combining the gravitational redshift measurements. Next, the ratio of the moment of inertia $I$ to $MR^2$ as a function of the compactness $M/R$ is obtained, which is consistent with the universal relations in the literature. The moment of inertia for $1.338M_\odot$ pulsar PSR J0737-3039A $I_{1.338M_\odot}$ is predicted to be 1.356$\times10^{45}$, 1.381$\times10^{45}$, and $1.407\times10^{45}\ \mathrm{g~cm^2}$ by the RBHF theory in the full Dirac space with $NN$ interactions Bonn A, B, and C, respectively. Finally, the quadrupole moment of neutron star is calculated under the slow-rotation and small-tidal-deformation approximation. The equation of states constructed by the RBHF theory in the full Dirac space, together with those by the projection method and momentum-independence approximation, conform to universal $I$-Love-$Q$ relations as well. By combing the tidal deformability from GW170817 and the universal relations from relativistic \textit{ab initio} methods, the moment of inertia of neutron star with 1.4 solar mass is also deduced as $I_{1.4M_\odot}=1.22^{+0.40}_{-0.25}\times 10^{45}\mathrm{g\ cm^2}$.

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Asymmetric Nuclear Matter and Neutron Star Properties in Relativistic ab initio Theory in the Full Dirac Space

The long-standing controversy about the isospin dependence of the effective Dirac mass in ab initio calculations of asymmetric nuclear matter is clarified by solving the relativistic Brueckner-Hartree-Fock equations in the full Dirac space. The symmetry energy and its slope parameter at the saturation density are $E_{\text{sym}}(ρ_0)=33.1$ MeV and $L=65.2$ MeV, in agreement with empirical and experimental values. Further applications predict the neutron star radius $R_{1.4M_\odot}\approx 12$ km and the maximum mass of a neutron star $M_{\text{max}}\leq 2.4M_\odot$.

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The nuclear symmetry energy from relativistic Brueckner-Hartree-Fock model

The microscopic mechanisms of the symmetry energy in nuclear matter are investigated in the framework of the relativistic Brueckner-Hartree-Fock (RBHF) model with a high-precision realistic nuclear potential, pvCDBonn A. The kinetic energy and potential contributions to symmetry energy are decomposed. They are explicitly expressed by the nucleon self-energies, which are obtained through projecting the $G$-matrices from the RBHF model into the terms of Lorentz covariants. The nuclear medium effects on the nucleon self-energy and nucleon-nucleon interaction in symmetry energy are discussed by comparing the results from the RBHF model and those from Hartree-Fock and relativistic Hartree-Fock models. It is found that the nucleon self-energy including the nuclear medium effect on the single-nucleon wave function provides a largely positive contribution to the symmetry energy, while {the nuclear medium effect on the nucleon-nucleon interaction, i.e., the effective $G$-matrices generates the negative contribution}. The tensor force plays an essential role in the symmetry energy around the density. The scalar and vector covariant amplitudes of nucleon-nucleon interaction dominate the potential component of the symmetry energy. Furthermore, the isoscalar and isovector terms in the optical potential are extracted from the RBHF model. The isoscalar part is consistent with the results from the analysis of global optical potential, while the isovector one has obvious differences at higher incident energy due to the relativistic effect.

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Properties of nuclear matter in relativistic Brueckner-Hartree-Fock model with high-precision charge-dependent potentials

Properties of nuclear matter are investigated in the framework of relativistic Brueckner-Hartree-Fock model with the latest high-precision charge-dependent Bonn (pvCD-Bonn) potentials, where the coupling between pion and nucleon is adopted as pseudovector form. These realistic pvCD-Bonn potentials are renormalized to effective nucleon-nucleon ($NN$) interactions, $G$ matrices. They are obtained by solving the Blankenbecler-Sugar (BbS) equation in nuclear medium. Then, the saturation properties of symmetric nuclear matter are calculated with pvCD-Bonn A, B, C potentials. The energies per nucleon are around $-10.72$ MeV to $-16.83$ MeV at saturation densities, $0.139$ fm$^{-3}$ to $0.192$ fm$^{-3}$ with these three potentials, respectively. It clearly demonstrates that the pseudovector coupling between pion and nucleon can generate reasonable saturation properties comparing with pseudoscalar coupling. Furthermore, these saturation properties have strong correlations with the tensor components of $NN$ potentials, i.e., the $D$-state probabilities of deuteron, $P_D$ to form a relativistic Coester band. In addition, the charge symmetry breaking (CSB) and charge independence breaking (CIB) effects are also discussed in nuclear matter from the partial wave contributions with these high-precision charge-dependent potentials. In general, the magnitudes of CSB from the differences between $nn$ and $pp$ potentials are about $0.05$ MeV, while those of CIB are around $0.35$ MeV from the differences between $np$ and $pp$ potentials. Finally, the equations of state of asymmetric nuclear matter are also calculated with different asymmetry parameters. It is found that the effective neutron mass is larger than the proton one in neutron-rich matter.

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Properties of neutron star described by a relativistic $ab~ initio$ model

Properties of neutron star are investigated by an available relativistic $ab~ initio$ method, i.e., the relativistic Brueckner-Hartree-Fock (RBHF) model, with the latest high-precision relativistic charge-dependent potentials, pvCD-Bonn A, B, C. The neutron star matter is solved within the beta equilibrium and charge neutrality conditions in the framework of RBHF model. Comparing to the conventional treatment, where the chemical potential of lepton was approximately represented by the symmetry energy of nuclear matter, the equation of state (EOS) of neutron star matter in the present self-consistent calculation with pvCD-Bonn B has striking difference above the baryon number density $n_b=0.55$ fm$^{-3}$. However, these differences influence the global properties of neutron star only about $1\%\sim2\%$. Then, three two-body potentials pvCD-Bonn A, B, C, with different tensor components, are systematically applied in RBHF model to calculate the properties of neutron star. It is found that the maximum masses of neutron star are around $2.21\sim2.30M_\odot$ and the corresponding radii are $R =11.18\sim11.72$ km. The radii of $1.4M_\odot$ neutron star are predicated as $R_{1.4} = 12.34\sim12.91$ km and their dimensionless tidal deformabilities are $Λ_{1.4} = 485\sim 626$. Furthermore, the direct URCA process in neutron star cooling will happen from $n_b=0.414\sim0.530$ fm$^{-3}$ with the proton fractions, $Y_p=0.136\sim0.138$. All of the results obtained from RBHF model only with two-body pvCD-Bonn potentials completely satisfy various constraints from recent astronomical observations of massive neutron stars, gravitational wave detection (GW 170817), and mass-radius simultaneous measurement (NICER).

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The charge-dependent Bonn potentials with pseudovector pion-nucleon coupling

To apply the high-precision realistic nucleon-nucleon ($NN$) potentials on the investigations of relativistic many-body methods, the new versions of charge-dependent Bonn (CD-Bonn) $NN$ potential are constructed within the pseudovector pion-nucleon coupling instead of the pseudoscalar type in the original CD-Bonn potential worked out by Machleidt [Phys. Rev. C 63, 024001 (2001)]. Two effective scalar mesons are introduced, whose coupling constants with nucleon are independently determined at each partial wave for total angular momentum $J\leq 4$, to describe the charge dependence of $NN$ scattering data precisely, while the coupling constants between vector, pseudovector mesons and nucleon are identical in all channels. Three revised CD-Bonn potentials adopting the pseudovector pion-nucleon couplings (pvCD-Bonn) are generated by fitting the Nijmegen PWA phase shift data and deuteron binding energy with different pion-nucleon coupling strengths, which can reproduce the phase shifts at spin-single channels and low-energy $NN$ scattering parameters very well, and provide the significantly different mixing parameters at spin-triplet channels. Furthermore, the $D$-state probabilities of deuteron from these potentials range from $4.22\%$ to $6.05\%$. It demonstrates that these potentials contain different components of tensor force, which will be useful to discuss the roles of tensor force in nuclear few-body and many-body systems.

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