arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to P. Magierski.
We discuss the possible manifestation of pairing dynamics in nuclear collisions beyond the standard quasi-static treatment of pairing correlations. These involve solitonic excitations induced by pairing phase difference of colliding nuclei and pairing dynamic enhancement in the di-nuclear system formed by merging nuclei.
Superfluidity is a generic feature of various quantum systems at low temperatures and it is in particular important for the description of dynamics of low energy nuclear reactions. The time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) is, to date, the only microscopic method which takes into account in a consistent way far from equilibrium dynamics of pairing field and single-particle degrees of freedom. The local version of TDDFT, so called TDSLDA, is particularly useful for the description of nuclear reactions and is well suited for leadership class computers of hybrid (CPU+GPU) architecture. The preliminary results obtained for collisions involving both medium-mass and heavy nuclei at the energies around the Coulomb barrier are presented.
We discuss issues related to pairing dynamics in nuclear large amplitude collective motion. The examples of effects which are not properly described within BCS theory are presented. In the second part we review properties of TDDFT and in particular we discuss the time-dependent local density approximation (TDSLDA) starting from the stationary action principle.
We discuss properties of the method based on time dependent superfluid local density approximation (TDSLDA) within an application to induced fission of 240Pu and surrounding nuclei. Various issues related to accuracy of time evolution and the determination of the properties of fission fragments are discussed.
Two major recent developments in theory and computational resources created the favorable conditions for achieving a microscopic description of nuclear fission almost eighty years after its discovery in 1939 by Hahn and Strassmann (1930). The first major development was in theory, the extension of the Time-Dependent Density Functional Theory (TDDFT) to superfluid fermion systems. The second development was in computing, the emergence of powerful enough supercomputers capable of solving the complex systems of equations describing the time evolution in three dimensions without any restrictions of hundreds of strongly interacting nucleons. Even though the available nuclear energy density functionals (NEDFs) are phenomenological still, their accuracy is improving steadily and the prospects of being able to perform calculations of the nuclear fission dynamics and to predict many properties of the fission fragments, otherwise not possible to extract from experiments, are within reach, all without making recourse anymore to uncontrollable assumptions and simplified phenomenological models.
We study the fission dynamics of 240Pu within an implementation of the Density Functional Theory (DFT) extended to superfluid systems and real-time dynamics. We demonstrate the critical role played by the pairing correlations. The evolution is found to be much slower than previously expected in this fully non-adiabatic treatment of nuclear dynamics, where there are no symmetry restrictions and all collective degrees of freedom (CDOF) are allowed to participate in the dynamics.
Within the framework of the unrestricted time-dependent density functional theory, we present for the first time an analysis of the relativistic Coulomb excitation of the heavy deformed open shell nucleus $^{238}$U. The approach is based on Superfluid Local Density Approximation (SLDA) formulated on a spatial lattice that can take into account coupling to the continuum, enabling self-consistent studies of superfluid dynamics of any nuclear shape. We have computed the energy deposited in the target nucleus as a function of the impact parameter, finding it to be significantly larger than the estimate using the Goldhaber-Teller model. The isovector giant dipole resonance, the dipole pygmy resonance and giant quadrupole modes were excited during the process. The one body dissipation of collective dipole modes is shown to lead a damping width $Γ_\downarrow \approx 0.4$ MeV and the number of pre-equilibrium neutrons emitted has been quantified.
In recent years, the N=90 isotones have been investigated to a large extent in relation to studies of quantum phase transitions. In this paper, we use the mean field approach with pairing-deformation self consistent Total Routhian Surface (TRS) calculations to study the N=90 isotones and neigh- bouring nuclei. The important probes, such as moments of inertia, quadrupole moments, the energy ratio of E(4+1)/E(2+1), octupole and hexadecapole degrees of freedom are considered and the cal- culated results are compared with the available experimental data. From a microscopic point of view, the N=90 isotones characterize the onset of the deformed region and are very well described by mean field calculations. The results are compared with those from other studies in beyond mean-field approximations. Shape coexistence phenomena in the region of interest are discussed.
A fully symmetry unrestricted Time-Dependent Density Functional Theory extended to include pairing correlations is used to calculate properties of the isovector giant dipole resonances of the deformed open-shell nuclei 172Yb (axially deformed), 188Os (triaxially deformed), and 238U (axially deformed), and to demonstrate good agreement with experimental data on nuclear photo-absorption cross-sections for two different Skyrme force parametrizations of the energy density functional: SkP and SLy4.
We calculate the one-body temperature Green's (Matsubara) function of the unitary Fermi gas via Quantum Monte Carlo, and extract the spectral weight function $A(p,ω)$ using the methods of maximum entropy and singular value decomposition. From $A(p,ω)$ we determine the quasiparticle spectrum, which can be accurately parametrized by three functions of temperature: an effective mass $m^*$, a mean-field potential $U$, and a gap $Δ$. Below the critical temperature $T_c=0.15\varepsilon_F$ the results for $m^*$, $U$ and $Δ$ can be accurately reproduced using an independent quasiparticle model. We find evidence of a pseudogap in the fermionic excitation spectrum for temperatures up to {$T^*\approx 0.20\varepsilon_{F} > T_c$}.
We discuss the Auxiliary Field Quantum Monte Carlo (AFQMC) method applied to dilute neutron matter at finite temperatures. We formulate the discrete Hubbard-Stratonovich transformation for the interaction with finite effective range which is free from the sign problem. The AFQMC results are compared with those obtained from exact diagonalization for a toy model. Preliminary calculations of energy and chemical potential as a function of temperature are presented.
Axial octupole and tetrahedral correlations in $^{80}$Zr and $^{98}$Zr have been investigated using the generator coordinate method, applied to a basis generated by Skyrme HF+BCS calculations. We focus on the possible presence of states with tetrahedral symmetry and their stability with respect to octupole vibrations. We show that pairing significantly reduces the stability of the tetrahedral configuration and that a shallow mean-field tetrahedral minimum coexists with an axial octupole minimum. The contributions to the correlation energies coming from the tetrahedral degree of freedom and octupole axial deformation are discussed.
The possible existence of stable axial octupole and tetrahedral deformations is investigated in $^{80}$Zr and $^{98}$Zr. HFBCS calculations with parity projection have been performed for various parametrizations of the Skyrme energy functional. The correlation and excitation energies of negative parity states associated with shape fluctuations have been obtained using the generator coordinate method (GCM). The results indicate that in these nuclei both the axial octupole and tetrahedral deformations are of dynamic character and possess similar characteristics. Various Skyrme forces give consistent results as a function of these two octupole degrees of freedom both at the mean-field level as well as for configuration mixing calculations.
We present a brief account of two phenomena taking place in a neutron star crust: the Fermionic Casimir effect and the major density depletion of the cores of the superfluid neutron vortices.
Odd-even staggering of binding energies is studied in finite fermion systems with pairing correlations. We discuss contributions of the pairing and mean-field to the staggering, and we construct the binding-energy filters which measure the magnitude of pairing correlations and the effective single-particle spacings in a given system The analysis is based on studying several exactly-solvable many-body Hamiltonians as well as on the analytical formulas that can be applied in the weak and strong pairing limits.
The excitation of a quantum gas of 112 independent fermions in the time-dependent potential well, periodically oscillating around the spherical shape, was followed over 10 oscillation cycles. Five different oscillation frequencies are considered for each of the five types of deformations: spheroidal and Legendre polynomial ripples: P_3, P_4, P_5 and P_6. The excitation rate of the gas in the deforming hard-walled cavities substantially decreases after initial one or two cycles and the final excitation energy is a few times smaller than the wall formula predictions. Qualitatively similar results are obtained for the diffused Woods-Saxon well. The details and possible origins of this behaviour are discussed as well as the consequences for the one-body dissipation model of nuclear dynamics.
The influence of quadrupole and hexadecapole residual interactions on rotational bands is investigated in a single-j shell model. An exact shell-model diagonalization of quadrupole-plus-hexadecapole interaction can sometimes produce a staggering of energy levels in the yrast bands.
Ground state properties of the superheavy elements (SHE) with Z from 108 to 128 and N from 150 to 192 are investigated using both the Skyrme-Hartree-Fock method with a density-independent contact pairing interaction and the macroscopic-microscopic approach with an average Woods-Saxon potential and a monopole pairing interaction. Detailed analysis of binding energies, separation energies, shell effects, single proton and neutron states, equilibrium deformations, alpha-decay energies, and other observables is given.