arXiv subjects

J. Piekarewicz

Publications and source records attributed to J. Piekarewicz.

At least 109 records · Page 6Linked to original sources

arXiv2006

On three topical aspects of the N=28 isotonic chain

The evolution of single-particle orbits along the N=28 isotonic chain is studied within the framework of a relativistic mean-field approximation. We focus on three topical aspects of the N=28 chain: (a) the emergence of a new magic number at Z=14; (b) the possible erosion of the N=28 shell; and (c) the weakening of the spin-orbit splitting among low-j neutron orbits. The present model supports the emergence of a robust Z=14 subshell gap in 48Ca, that persists as one reaches the neutron-rich isotone 42Si. Yet the proton removal from 48Ca results in a significant erosion of the N=28 shell in 42Si. Finally, the removal of s1/2 protons from 48Ca causes a ~50% reduction of the spin-orbit splitting among neutron p-orbitals in 42Si.

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arXiv2006

Pygmy dipole resonance as a constraint on the neutron skin of heavy nuclei

The isotopic dependence of the isovector Pygmy dipole response in tin is studied within the framework of the relativistic random phase approximation. Regarded as an oscillation of the neutron skin against the isospin-symmetric core, the pygmy dipole resonance may place important constraints on the neutron skin of heavy nuclei and, as a result, on the equation of state of neutron-rich matter. The present study centers around two questions. First, is there a strong correlation between the development of a neutron skin and the emergence of low-energy isovector dipole strength? Second, could one use the recently measured Pygmy dipole resonance in 130Sn and 132Sn to discriminate among theoretical models? For the first question we found that while a strong correlation between the neutron skin and the Pygmy dipole resonance exists, a mild anti-correlation develops beyond 120Sn. The answer to the second question suggests that models with overly large neutron skins--and thus stiff symmetry energies--are in conflict with experiment.

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arXiv2005

Insensitivity of the elastic proton-nucleus reaction to the neutron radius of 208Pb

The sensitivity--or rather insensitivity--of the elastic proton-nucleus reaction to the neutron radius of 208Pb is investigated using a non-relativistic impulse-approximation approach. The energy region (Tlab=500 MeV and Tlab=800 MeV) is selected so that the impulse approximation may be safely assumed. Therefore, only free nucleon-nucleon scattering data are used as input for the optical potential. Further, the optical potential includes proton and neutron ground-state densities that are generated from accurately-calibrated models. Even so, these models yield a wide range of values (from 0.13 fm to 0.28 fm) for the poorly known neutron skin thickness in 208Pb. An excellent description of the experimental cross section is obtained with all neutron densities. We have invoked analytic insights developed within the eikonal approximation to understand the insensitivity of the differential cross section to the various neutron densities. As the diffractive oscillations of the cross sections are controlled by the matter radius of the nucleus, the large spread in the neutron skin among the various models gets diluted into a mere 1.5% difference in the matter radius. This renders ineffective the elastic reaction as a precision tool for the measurement of neutron radii.

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arXiv2005

Dynamical response of the nuclear pasta in neutron star crusts

The nuclear pasta -- a novel state of matter having nucleons arranged in a variety of complex shapes -- is expected to be found in the crust of neutron stars and in core-collapse supernovae at subnuclear densities of about $10^{14}$ g/cm$^3$. Due to frustration, a phenomenon that emerges from the competition between short-range nuclear attraction and long-range Coulomb repulsion, the nuclear pasta displays a preponderance of unique low-energy excitations. These excitations could have a strong impact on many transport properties, such as neutrino propagation through stellar environments. The excitation spectrum of the nuclear pasta is computed via a molecular-dynamics simulation involving up to 100,000 nucleons. The dynamic response of the pasta displays a classical plasma oscillation in the 1-2 MeV region. In addition, substantial strength is found at low energies. Yet this low-energy strength is missing from a simple ion model containing a single-representative heavy nucleus. The low-energy strength observed in the dynamic response of the pasta is likely to be a density wave involving the internal degrees of freedom of the clusters.

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arXiv2005

Compact objects for everyone: I. White dwarf stars

Based upon previous discussions on the structure of compact stars geared towards undergraduate physics students, a real experiment involving two upper-level undergraduate physics students, a beginning physics graduate, and two advanced graduate students was conducted. A recent addition to the physics curriculum at Florida State University, "The Physics of Stars", sparked quite a few students' interests in the subject matter involving stellar structure. This, coupled with "Stars and Statistical Physics" by Balian and Blaizot and "Neutron Stars for Undergraduates" by Silbar and Reddy, is the cornerstone of this small research group who tackled solving the structure equations for compact objects in the Summer of 2004. Through the use of a simple finite-difference algorithm coupled to Microsoft Excel and Maple, solutions to the equations for stellar structure are presented in the Newtonian regime appropriate to the physics of white dwarf stars.

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arXiv2005

Strange-quark contribution to the ratio of neutral- to charged-current cross sections in neutrino-nucleus scattering

A formalism based on a relativistic plane wave impulse approximation is developed to investigate the strange-quark content ($g_{A}^{s}$) of the axial-vector form factor of the nucleon via neutrino-nucleus scattering. Nuclear structure effects are incorporated via an accurately calibrated relativistic mean-field model. The ratio of neutral- to charged-current cross sections is used to examine the sensitivity of this observable to $g_{A}^{s}$. For values of the incident neutrino energy in the range proposed by the FINeSSE collaboration and by adopting a value of $g_{A}^{s}=-0.19$, a 30% enhancement in the ratio is observed relative to the $g_{A}^{s}=0$ result.

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arXiv2005

Neutron-Rich Nuclei in Heaven and Earth

An accurately calibrated relativistic parametrization is introduced to compute the ground state properties of finite nuclei, their linear response, and the structure of neutron stars. While similar in spirit to the successful NL3 parameter set, it produces an equation of state that is considerably softer -- both for symmetric nuclear matter and for the symmetry energy. This softening appears to be required for an accurate description of several collective modes having different neutron-to-proton ratios. Among the predictions of this model are a symmetric nuclear-matter incompressibility of K=230 MeV and a neutron skin thickness in 208Pb of Rn-Rp=0.21 fm. Further, the impact of such a softening on the properties of neutron stars is as follows: the model predicts a limiting neutron star mass of Mmax=1.72 Msun, a radius of R=12.66 km for a ``canonical'' M=1.4 Msun neutron star, and no (nucleon) direct Urca cooling in neutrons stars with masses below M=1.3 Msun.

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arXiv2005

Atomic Parity Non-Conservation, Neutron Radii, and Effective Field Theories of Nuclei

Accurately calibrated effective field theories are used to compute atomic parity non-conserving (APNC) observables. Although accurately calibrated, these effective field theories predict a large spread in the neutron skin of heavy nuclei. While the neutron skin is strongly correlated to a large number of physical observables, in this contribution we focus on its impact on new physics through APNC observables. The addition of an isoscalar-isovector coupling constant to the effective Lagrangian generates a wide range of values for the neutron skin of heavy nuclei without compromising the success of the model in reproducing well constrained nuclear observables. Earlier studies have suggested that the use of isotopic ratios of APNC observables may eliminate their sensitivity to atomic structure. This leaves nuclear structure uncertainties as the main impediment for identifying physics beyond the standard model. We establish that uncertainties in the neutron skin of heavy nuclei are at present too large to measure isotopic ratios to better than the 0.1% accuracy required to test the standard model. However, we argue that such uncertainties will be significantly reduced by the upcoming measurement of the neutron radius in 208Pb at the Jefferson Laboratory.

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arXiv2004

Nonuniform Neutron-Rich Matter and Coherent Neutrino Scattering

Nonuniform neutron-rich matter present in both core-collapse supernovae and neutron-star crusts is described in terms of a semiclassical model that reproduces nuclear-matter properties and includes long-range Coulomb interactions. The neutron-neutron correlation function and the corresponding static structure factor are calculated from molecular dynamics simulations involving 40,000 to 100,000 nucleons. The static structure factor describes coherent neutrino scattering which is expected to dominate the neutrino opacity. At low momentum transfers the static structure factor is found to be small because of ion screening. In contrast, at intermediate momentum transfers the static structure factor displays a large peak due to coherent scattering from all the neutrons in a cluster. This peak moves to higher momentum transfers and decreases in amplitude as the density increases. A large static structure factor at zero momentum transfer, indicative of large density fluctuations during a first-order phase transition, may increase the neutrino opacity. However, no evidence of such an increase has been found. Therefore, it is unlikely that the system undergoes a simple first-order phase transition. It is found that corrections to the commonly used single heavy nucleus approximation first appear at a density of the order of $10^{13}$ g/cm$^3$ and increase rapidly with increasing density. Thus, neutrino opacities are overestimated in the single heavy nucleus approximation relative to the complete molecular dynamics simulations.

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arXiv2004

Color screening in a constituent quark model of hadronic matter

The effect of color screening on the formation of a heavy quark-antiquark ($Q\bar{Q}$) bound state--such as the $J/ψ$ meson--is studied using a constituent-quark model. The response of the nuclear medium to the addition of two color charges is simulated directly in terms of its quark constituents via a string-flip potential that allows for quark confinement within hadrons yet enables the hadrons to separate without generating unphysical long-range forces. Medium modifications to the properties of the heavy meson, such as its energy and its mean-square radius, are extracted by solving Schrödinger's equation for the $Q\bar{Q}$ pair in the presence of a (screened) density-dependent potential. The density dependence of the heavy-quark potential is in qualitative agreement with earlier studies of its temperature dependence extracted from lattice calculations at finite temperature. In the present model it is confirmed that abrupt changes in the properties of the $J/ψ$-meson in the hadronic medium ({\it plasma}), correlate strongly with the deconfining phase transition.

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arXiv2004

Neutrino-pasta scattering: the opacity of nonuniform neutron-rich matter

Neutron-rich matter at subnuclear densities may involve complex structures displaying a variety of shapes, such as spherical, slablike, and/or rodlike shapes. These phases of the {\it nuclear pasta} are expected to exist in the crust of neutron stars and in core-collapse supernovae. The dynamics of core-collapse supernovae is very sensitive to the interactions between neutrinos and nucleons/nuclei. Indeed, neutrino excitation of the low-energy modes of the pasta may allow for a significant energy transfer to the nuclear medium, thereby reviving the stalled supernovae shock. The linear response of the nuclear pasta to neutrinos is modeled via a simple semi-classical simulation. The transport mean-free path for $μ$ and $τ$ neutrinos (and antineutrinos) is expressed in terms of the static structure factor of the pasta, which is evaluated using Metropolis Monte Carlo simulations.

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arXiv2003

Unmasking the nuclear matter equation of state

Accurately calibrated (or ``best fit'') relativistic mean-field models are used to compute the distribution of isoscalar monopole strength in 90Zr and 208Pb, and the isovector dipole strength in 208Pb using a continuum random-phase-approximation approach. It is shown that the distribution of isoscalar monopole strength in 208Pb--but not in 90Zr--is sensitive to the density dependence of the symmetry energy. This sensitivity hinders the extraction of the compression modulus of symmetric nuclear matter from the isoscalar giant monopole resonance (ISGMR) in 208Pb. Thus, one relies on 90Zr, a nucleus with both a small neutron-proton asymmetry and a well developed ISGMR peak, to constrain the compression modulus of symmetric nuclear matter to the range K=(248 +/- 6) MeV. In turn, the sensitivity of the ISGMR in 208Pb to the density dependence of the symmetry energy is used to constrain its neutron skin to the range Rn-Rp<=0.22 fm. The impact of this result on the enhanced cooling of neutron stars is briefly addressed.

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arXiv2003

Quasielastic neutrino-nucleus scattering

We study the sensitivity of neutral-current neutrino-nucleus scattering to the strange-quark content of the axial-vector form factor of the nucleon. A model-independent formalism for this reaction is developed in terms of eight nuclear structure functions. Taking advantage of the insensitivity of the ratio of proton $(ν,ν' p)$ to neutron $(ν,ν' n)$ yields to distortion effects, we compute all structure functions in a relativistic plane wave impulse approximation approach. Further, by employing the notion of a bound-state nucleon propagator, closed-form, analytic expressions for all nuclear-structure functions are developed in terms of an accurately calibrated relativistic mean-field model. Using a strange-quark contribution to the axial-vector form factor of $g_{A}^{s}=-0.19$, a significant enhancement in the proton-to-neutron yields is observed relative to one with $g_{A}^{s}=0$.

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arXiv2003

Spin-orbit splitting in low-j neutron orbits and proton densities in the nuclear interior

On the basis of relativistic mean field calculations, we predict that the spin-orbit splitting of $p_{3/2}$ and $p_{1/2}$ neutron orbits depends sensitively on the magnitude of the proton density near the center of the nucleus, and in particular on the occupation of $s_{1/2}$ proton orbits. We focus on two exotic nuclei, $^{46}$Ar and $^{206}$Hg, in which the presence of a pair of $s_{1/2}$ proton holes is predicted to cause the splitting between the $p_{3/2}$ and $p_{1/2}$ neutron orbits near the Fermi surface to be much smaller than in the nearby doubly-magic nuclei $^{48}$Ca and $^{208}$Pb. We note that these two exotic nuclei depart from the long-standing paradigm of a central potential proportional to the ground state baryon density and a spin-orbit potential proportional to the derivative of the central potential.

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arXiv2003

Low-energy operators in effective theories

Modern effective-theory techniques are applied to the nuclear many-body problem. A novel approach is proposed for the renormalization of operators in a manner consistent with the construction of the effective potential. To test this approach, a one-dimensional, yet realistic, nucleon-nucleon potential is introduced. An effective potential is then constructed by tuning its parameters to reproduce the exact effective-range expansion and a variety of bare operators are renormalized in a fashion compatible with this construction. Predictions for the expectation values of these effective operators in the ground state reproduce the results of the exact theory with remarkable accuracy (at the 0.5% level). This represents a marked improvement over a widely practiced approach that uses effective interactions but retains bare operators. Further, it is shown that this improvement is more impressive as the operator becomes more sensitive to the short-range structure of the potential. We illustrate the main ideas of this work using the elastic form factor of the deuteron as an example.

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arXiv2003

Relativistic mean-field study of neutron-rich nuclei

A relativistic mean-field model is used to study the ground-state properties of neutron-rich nuclei. Nonlinear isoscalar-isovector terms, unconstrained by present day phenomenology, are added to the model Lagrangian in order to modify the poorly known density dependence of the symmetry energy. These new terms soften the symmetry energy and reshape the theoretical neutron drip line without compromising the agreement with existing ground-state information. A strong correlation between the neutron radius of 208Pb and the binding energy of valence orbitals is found: the smaller the neutron radius of 208Pb, the weaker the binding energy of the last occupied neutron orbital. Thus, models with the softest symmetry energy are the first ones to drip neutrons. Further, in anticipation of the upcoming one-percent measurement of the neutron radius of 208Pb at the Thomas Jefferson Laboratory, a close relationship between the neutron radius of 208Pb and neutron radii of elements of relevance to atomic parity-violating experiments is established.

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arXiv2002

Low Mass Neutron Stars and the Equation of State of Dense Matter

Neutron-star radii provide useful information on the equation of state of neutron rich matter. Particularly interesting is the density dependence of the equation of state (EOS). For example, the softening of the EOS at high density, where the pressure rises slower than anticipated, could signal a transition to an exotic phase. However, extracting the density dependence of the EOS requires measuring the radii of neutron stars for a broad range of masses. A ``normal'' 1.4 solar mass neutron star has a central density of a few times nuclear-matter saturation density. In contrast, low mass (of the order of 0.5 solar masses) neutron stars have central densities near nuclear-matter saturation density so its radius provides information on the EOS at low density. Unfortunately, low-mass stars are rare because they may be hard to form. Instead, a precision measurement of nuclear radii on atomic nuclei may contain similar information. Indeed, we find a strong correlation between the neutron radius of 208Pb and the radius of a 0.5 solar-mass neutron star. Thus, the radius of such a neutron star can be inferred from a measurement of the the neutron radius of 208Pb. Comparing this value to the measured radius of a 1.4 solar-mass neutron star should provide the strongest constraint to date on the density dependence of the equation of state.

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arXiv2002

Constraining URCA cooling of neutron stars from the neutron radius of 208Pb

Recent observations by the Chandra observatory suggest that some neutron stars may cool rapidly, perhaps by the direct URCA process which requires a high proton fraction. The proton fraction is determined by the nuclear symmetry energy whose density dependence may be constrained by measuring the neutron radius of a heavy nucleus, such as 208Pb. Such a measurement is necessary for a reliable extrapolation of the proton fraction to the higher densities present in the neutron star. A large neutron radius in 208Pb implies a stiff symmetry energy that grows rapidly with density, thereby favoring a high proton fraction and allowing direct URCA cooling. Predictions for the neutron radius in 208Pb are correlated to the proton fraction in dense matter by using a variety of relativistic effective field-theory models. Models that predict a neutron (Rn) minus proton (Rp) root-mean-square radius in 208Pb to be Rn-Rp<0.20 fm have proton fractions too small to allow the direct URCA cooling of 1.4 solar-mass neutron stars. Conversely, if Rn-Rp>0.25 fm, the direct URCA process is allowed (by all models) to cool down a 1.4 solar-mass neutron star. The Parity Radius Experiment at Jefferson Laboratory aims to measure the neutron radius in 208Pb accurately and model independently via parity-violating electron scattering. Such a measurement would greatly enhance our ability to either confirm or dismiss the direct URCA cooling of neutron stars.

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