arXiv subjects

H. Nakada

Publications and source records attributed to H. Nakada.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2014

Recent Advances in the Microscopic Calculations of Level Densities by the Shell Model Monte Carlo Method

The shell model Monte Carlo (SMMC) method enables calculations in model spaces that are many orders of magnitude larger than those that can be treated by conventional methods, and is particularly suitable for the calculation of level densities in the presence of correlations. We review recent advances and applications of SMMC for the microscopic calculation of level densities. Recent developments include (i) a method to calculate accurately the ground-state energy of an odd-mass nucleus, circumventing a sign problem that originates in the projection on an odd number of particles, and (ii) a method to calculate directly level densities, which, unlike state densities, do not include the spin degeneracy of the levels. We calculated the level densities of a family of nickel isotopes $^{59-64}$Ni and of a heavy deformed rare-earth nucleus $^{162}$Dy and found them to be in close agreement with various experimental data sets.

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arXiv2013

Collectivity in Heavy Nuclei in the Shell Model Monte Carlo Approach

The microscopic description of collectivity in heavy nuclei in the framework of the configuration-interaction shell model has been a major challenge. The size of the model space required for the description of heavy nuclei prohibits the use of conventional diagonalization methods. We have overcome this difficulty by using the shell model Monte Carlo (SMMC) method, which can treat model spaces that are many orders of magnitude larger than those that can be treated by conventional methods. We identify a thermal observable that can distinguish between vibrational and rotational collectivity and use it to describe the crossover from vibrational to rotational collectivity in families of even-even rare-earth isotopes. We calculate the state densities in these nuclei and find them to be in close agreement with experimental data. We also calculate the collective enhancement factors of the corresponding level densities and find that their decay with excitation energy is correlated with the pairing and shape phase transitions.

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arXiv2013

Tensor-force effects on single-particle levels and proton bubble structure around the $Z$ or $N=20$ magic number

Applying the semi-realistic $NN$ interactions that include realistic tensor force to the Hartree-Fock calculations, we investigate tensor-force effects on the single-particle levels in the Ca isotopes. The semi-realistic interaction successfully describes the experimental difference between $\varepsilon(p1s_{1/2})$ and $\varepsilon(p0d_{3/2})$ (denoted by $\mathitΔ\varepsilon_{13}$) both at $^{40}$Ca and $^{48}$Ca, confirming importance of the tensor force. The tensor force plays a role in the $N$-dependence of $\mathitΔ\varepsilon_{13}$ also in neutron-rich Ca nuclei. While the $p1s_{1/2}$-$p0d_{3/2}$ inversion is predicted in heavier Ca nuclei as in $^{48}$Ca, it takes place only in $N\geq 46$, delayed by the tensor force. We further investigate possibility of proton bubble structure in Ar, which is suggested by the $p1s_{1/2}$-$p0d_{3/2}$ inversion in $^{48}$Ca and more neutron-rich Ca nuclei, by the spherical Hartree-Fock-Bogolyubov calculations. Even with the inversion at $^{48}$Ca the pair correlation prohibits prominent bubble distribution in $^{46}$Ar. Bubble in Ar is unlikely also near neutron drip line because either of unboundness or of deformation. However, $^{34}$Si remains a candidate for proton bubble structure, owing to large shell gap between $p1s_{1/2}$ and $p0d_{5/2}$.

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arXiv2013

Level Densities of Heavy Nuclei by the Shell Model Monte Carlo Method

The microscopic calculation of nuclear level densities in the presence of correlations is a difficult many-body problem. The shell model Monte Carlo method provides a powerful technique to carry out such calculations using the framework of the configuration-interaction shell model in spaces that are many orders of magnitude larger than spaces that can be treated by conventional methods. We present recent applications of the method to the calculation of level densities and their collective enhancement factors in heavy nuclei. The calculated level densities are in close agreement with experimental data.

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arXiv2013

Nuclear state densities of odd-mass heavy nuclei in the shell model Monte Carlo approach

While the shell model Monte Carlo approach has been successful in the microscopic calculation of nuclear state densities, it has been difficult to calculate accurately state densities of odd-even heavy nuclei. This is because the projection on an odd number of particles in the shell model Monte Carlo method leads to a sign problem at low temperatures, making it impractical to extract the ground-state energy in direct Monte Carlo calculations. We show that the ground-state energy can be extracted to a good precision by using level counting data at low excitation energies and the neutron resonance data at the neutron threshold energy. This allows us to extend recent applications of the shell-model Monte Carlo method in even-even rare-earth nuclei to the odd-even isotopic chains of $^{149-155}$Sm and $^{143-149}$Nd. We calculate the state densities of the odd-even samarium and neodymium isotopes and find close agreement with the state densities extracted from experimental data.

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arXiv2013

Direct microscopic calculations of nuclear level densities in the shell model Monte Carlo approach

Nuclear level densities are crucial for estimating statistical nuclear reaction rates. The shell model Monte Carlo method is a powerful approach for microscopic calculation of state densities in very large model spaces. However, these state densities include the spin degeneracy of each energy level, whereas experiments often measure level densities in which each level is counted just once. To enable the direct comparison of theory with experiments, we introduce a method to calculate directly the level density in the shell model Monte Carlo approach. The method employs a projection on the minimal absolute value of the magnetic quantum number. We apply the method to nuclei in the iron region as well as the strongly deformed rare-earth nucleus $^{162}$Dy. We find very good agreement with experimental data including level counting at low energies, charged particle spectra and Oslo method at intermediate energies, neutron and proton resonance data, and Ericson's fluctuation analysis at higher excitation energies.

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arXiv2013

Crossover from skin-mode to proton-neutron-mode in $E1$ excitations of neutron-rich nuclei

Character of the low-energy $E1$ excitations is investigated by analyzing transition densities obtained from the RPA calculations in the doubly-magic nuclei. We propose a decomposition method of the $E1$ excitations into the $pn$ mode (i.e. oscillation between protons and neutrons) and the skin mode (oscillation of the neutron skin against the inner core) via the transition densities, by which their mixing is handled in a straightforward manner. Crossover behavior of the $E1$ excitations is found, from the skin mode at low energy to the $pn$ mode at higher energy. The ratio of the skin-mode strength to the full strength turns out to be insensitive to nuclide and to effective interactions in the energy region of the crossover. Depending on the excitation energy, the observed low-energy $E1$ excitations are not necessarily dominated by the skin mode, as exemplified for $^{90}$Zr. fied for $^{90}$Zr.

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arXiv2013

Semi-realistic nucleon-nucleon interactions with improved neutron-matter properties

New parameter-sets of the semi-realistic nucleon-nucleon interaction are developed, by modifying the M3Y interaction but maintaining the tensor channels and the longest-range central channels. The modification is made so as to reproduce microscopic results of neutron-matter energies, in addition to the measured binding energies of doubly magic nuclei including $^{100}$Sn and the even-odd mass differences of the Z=50 and N=82 nuclei in the self-consistent mean-field calculations. Separation energies of the proton- or neutron-magic nuclei are shown to be in fair agreement with the experimental data. With the new parameter-sets M3Y-P6 and P7, the isotropic spin-saturated symmetric nuclear matter remains stable in the density range as wide as $ρ\lesssim 6ρ_0$, while keeping desirable results of the previous parameter-set on finite nuclei. Isotope shifts of the Pb nuclei and tensor-force effects on shell structure are discussed.

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arXiv2013

Crossover from vibrational to rotational collectivity in heavy nuclei in the shell-model Monte Carlo approach

Heavy nuclei exhibit a crossover from vibrational to rotational collectivity as the number of neutrons or protons increases from shell closure towards midshell, but the microscopic description of this crossover has been a major challenge. We apply the shell model Monte Carlo approach to families of even-even samarium and neodymium isotopes and identify a microscopic signature of the crossover from vibrational to rotational collectivity in the low-temperature behavior of $<\mathbf{J}^2>_T$, where $\bf J$ is the total spin and $T$ is the temperature. This signature agrees well with its values extracted from experimental data. We also calculate the state densities of these nuclei and find them to be in very good agreement with experimental data. Finally, we define a collective enhancement factor from the ratio of the total state density to the intrinsic state density as calculated in the finite-temperature Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov approximation. The decay of this enhancement factor with excitation energy is found to correlate with the pairing and shape phase transitions in these nuclei.

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arXiv2012

Signatures of phase transitions in nuclei at finite excitation energies

The mean-field approximation predicts pairing and shape phase transitions in nuclei as a function of temperature or excitation energy. However, in the finite nucleus the singularities of these phase transitions are smoothed out by quantal and thermal fluctuations. An interesting question is whether signatures of these transitions survive despite the large fluctuations. The shell model Monte Carlo (SMMC) approach enables us to calculate the statistical properties of nuclei beyond the mean-field approximation in model spaces that are many orders of magnitude larger than spaces that can be treated by conventional diagonalization methods. We have extended the SMMC method to heavy nuclei and used it to study the transition from vibrational (spherical) to rotational (deformed) nuclei in families of rare-earth isotopes. We have calculated collective enhancement factors of level densities as a function of excitation energy and found that the decay of the vibrational and rotational enhancements is well correlated with the pairing and shape phase transitions, respectively.

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arXiv2012

Recent developments in the shell model Monte Carlo approach to nuclei

The shell model Monte Carlo (SMMC) approach provides a powerful method for the microscopic calculation of statistical and collective nuclear properties in model spaces that are many orders of magnitude larger than those that can be treated by conventional methods. We discuss recent applications of the method to describe the emergence of collectivity in the framework of the configuration-interaction shell model and the crossover from vibrational to rotational collectivity in families of rare-earth nuclei. We have calculated state densities of these rare-earth nuclei and find their collective enhancement factors to be correlated with the pairing and shape phase transitions. We also discuss an accurate method to calculate the ground-state energy of odd-even and odd-odd nuclei, circumventing the sign problem that originates in the projection on an odd number of particles. We have applied this method to calculate pairing gaps in families of isotopes in the iron region.

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arXiv2011

Coulombic effect and renormalization in nuclear pairing

We investigate effects of the Coulomb force on the nuclear pairing properties by performing the Gogny Hartree-Fock-Bogolyubov calculations for the $N=20$, $28$, $50$, $82$ and $126$ nuclei. The Coulomb force reduces the proton pair energy and the even-odd mass difference by about 25%, except for nuclei at and around the proton shell or subshell closure. We then propose a renormalization scheme via a reduction factor $γ_p$ for the proton pairing channel. It is found that a single value of $γ_p(=0.90)$ well takes account of the Coulombic effect, for nuclei covering wide range of the mass number and the neutron excess including the nuclei around the shell or subshell closure.

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arXiv2010

Shell structure in neutron-rich Ca and Ni nuclei under semi-realistic mean fields

Shell structure in the neutron-rich Ca and Ni nuclei is investigated by the spherical Hartree-Fock calculations with the semi-realistic $NN$ interactions. Specific ingredients of the effective interaction, particularly the tensor force, often play a key role in the $Z$ dependence of the neutron shell structure. Such examples are found in N=32 and N=40; N=32 becomes magic or submagic in $^{52}$Ca while its magicity is broken in $^{60}$Ni, and N=40 is submagic (though not magic) in $^{68}$Ni but not in $^{60}$Ca. Comments are given on the doubly magic nature of $^{78}$Ni. We point out that the loose binding can lead to a submagic number N=58 in $^{86}$Ni, assisted by the weak pair coupling.

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arXiv2010

Modified parameter-sets of M3Y-type semi-realistic nucleon-nucleon interaction for nuclear structure studies

New parameter-sets of the M3Y-type semi-realistic nucleon-nucleon interaction are obtained, by taking into account the whole contribution of the interaction to the pairing. The interactions are applicable to nuclear structure studies via mean-field calculations and their extensions. Implementing self-consistent mean-field calculations for the spherical nuclei, we confirm that the results do not change significantly from the previous ones, in which the parameters were determined by partly discarding influence of the density-dependent repulsion on the pairing.

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arXiv2009

RPA calculations with Gaussian expansion method

The Gaussian expansion method (GEM) is extensively applied to the calculations in the random-phase approximation (RPA). We adopt the mass-independent basis-set that has been tested in the mean-field calculations. By comparing the RPA results with those obtained by several other available methods for Ca isotopes, using a density-dependent contact interaction and the Woods-Saxon single-particle states, we confirm that energies, transition strengths and widths of their distribution are described by the GEM bases to good precision, for the $1^-$, $2^+$ and $3^-$ collective states. The GEM is then applied to the self-consistent RPA calculations with the finite-range Gogny D1S interaction. The spurious center-of-mass motion is well separated from the physical states in the $E1$ response, and the energy-weighted sum rules for the isoscalar transitions are fulfilled reasonably well. Properties of low-energy transitions in $^{60}$Ca are argued in some detail.

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arXiv2008

Mean-field approach to nuclear structure with semi-realistic nucleon-nucleon interactions

Semi-realistic nucleon-nucleon interactions applicable to the self-consistent mean-field (both Hartree-Fock and Hartree-Fock-Bogolyubov) calculations are developed, by modifying the M3Y interaction. The modification is made so as to reproduce binding energies and rms matter radii of doubly magic nuclei, single-particle levels in $^{208}$Pb, and even-odd mass differences of the Sn isotopes. We find parameter-sets with and without the tensor force. The new interactions are further checked by the saturation properties of the uniform nuclear matter including the Landau-Migdal parameters. By the mean-field calculations, interaction-dependence of the neutron drip line is investigated for the O, Ca and Ni isotopes, and of the single-particle energies for the N=16, 32, 50, 82 and Z=50 nuclei. Results of the semi-realistic interactions including the tensor force are in fair agreement with available experimental data for all of these properties.

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arXiv2008

Isospin-projected nuclear level densities by the shell model Monte Carlo method

We have developed an efficient isospin projection method in the shell model Monte Carlo approach for isospin-conserving Hamiltonians. For isoscalar observables this projection method has the advantage of being exact sample by sample. The isospin projection method allows us to take into account the proper isospin dependence of the nuclear interaction, thus avoiding a sign problem that such an interaction introduces in unprojected calculations. We apply our method in the calculation of the isospin dependence of level densities in the complete $pf+g_{9/2}$ shell. We find that isospin-dependent corrections to the total level density are particularly important for $N \sim Z$ nuclei.

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arXiv2008

Application of Gaussian expansion method to nuclear mean-field calculations with deformation

We extensively develop a method of implementing mean-field calculations for deformed nuclei, using the Gaussian expansion method (GEM). This GEM algorithm has the following advantages: (i) it can efficiently describe the energy-dependent asymptotics of the wave functions at large $r$, (ii) it is applicable to various effective interactions including those with finite ranges, and (iii) the basis parameters are insensitive to nuclide, thereby many nuclei in wide mass range can be handled by a single set of bases. Superposing the spherical GEM bases with feasible truncation for the orbital angular momentum of the single-particle bases, we obtain deformed single-particle wave-functions to reasonable precision. We apply the new algorithm to the Hartree-Fock and the Hartree-Fock-Bogolyubov calculations of Mg nuclei with the Gogny interaction, by which neck structure of a deformed neutron halo is suggested for $^{40}$Mg.

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