Covariant density functional theory, which has so far been applied only within the framework of static and time dependent mean field theory is extended to include Particle-Vibration Coupling (PVC) in a consistent way. Starting from a conventional energy functional we calculate the low-lying collective vibrations in Relativistic Random Phase Approximation (RRPA) and construct an energy dependent self-energy for the Dyson equation. The resulting Bethe-Salpeter equation in the particle-hole ($ph$) channel is solved in the Time Blocking Approximation (TBA). No additional parameters are used and double counting is avoided by a proper subtraction method. The same energy functional, i.e. the same set of coupling constants, generates the Dirac-Hartree single-particle spectrum, the static part of the residual $ph$-interaction and the particle-phonon coupling vertices. Therefore a fully consistent description of nuclear excited states is developed. This method is applied for an investigation of damping phenomena in the spherical nuclei with closed shells $^{208}$Pb and $^{132}$Sn. Since the phonon coupling terms enrich the RRPA spectrum with a multitude of $ph\otimes$phonon components a noticeable fragmentation of the giant resonances is found, which is in full agreement with experimental data and with results of the semi-phenomenological non-relativistic approach.
The impact of particle-vibration coupling and polarization effects due to deformation and time-odd mean fields on single-particle spectra is studied systematically in doubly magic nuclei from low mass $^{56}$Ni up to superheavy ones. Particle-vibration coupling is treated fully self-consistently within the framework of relativistic particle-vibration coupling model. Polarization effects due to deformation and time-odd mean field induced by odd particle are computed within covariant density functional theory. It has been found that among these contributions the coupling to vibrations makes a ma…
A consistent combination of covariant density functional theory (CDFT) and Landau-Migdal Theory of Finite Fermi Systems (TFFS) is presented. Both methods are in principle exact, but Landau-Migdal theory cannot describe ground state properties and density functional theory does not take into account the energy dependence of the self-energy and therefore fails to yield proper single-% particle spectra as well as the coupling to complex configurations in the width of giant resonances. Starting from an energy functional, phonons and their vertices are calculated without any further parameters. The…
The recent extensions of the covariant energy density functional theory with the quasiparticle-vibration coupling (QVC) are reviewed. Formulation of the Quasiparticle Random Phase Approximation (QRPA) in the relativistic framework is discussed. Self-consistent extensions of the relativistic QRPA imply the QVC which is implemented in two-body propagators in the nuclear medium. This provides fragmentation of the QRPA states describing the damping of the vibrational motion.
The current status of the application of covariant density functional theory to the description of fission barriers in actinides and superheavy nuclei is reviewed. The achievements and open problems are discussed.
Modern applications of Covariant Density Functional Theory (CDFT) are discussed. First we show a systematic investigation of fission barriers in actinide nuclei within constraint relativistic mean field theory allowing for triaxial deformations. In the second part we discuss a microscopic theory of quantum phase transitions (QPT) based on the relativistic generator coordinate method.
The assessment of the global performance of the state-of-the-art covariant energy density functionals and related theoretical uncertainties in the description of ground state observables has recently been performed. Based on these results, the correlations between global description of binding energies and nuclear matter properties of covariant energy density functionals have been studied in this contribution.
The recent progress in the localized covariant density functional constrained by the relativistic Hartree-Fock theory is briefly presented by taking the Gamow-Teller resonance in 90Zr as an example. It is shown that the constraints introduced by the Fock terms into the particle-hole residual interactions are straight forward and robust.
The nuclear magnetic moment is an important physical observable and serves as a useful tool for the stringent test of nuclear models. For the past decades, the covariant density functional theory and its extension have been proved to be successful in describing the nuclear ground-states and excited states properties. However, a long-standing problem is its failure to predict magnetic moments. This article reviews the recent progress in the description of the nuclear magnetic moments within the covariant density functional theory. In particular, the magnetic moments of spherical odd-A nuclei wi…
Relativistic mean field theory allowing for triaxial deformations is applied for a systematic study of fission barriers in the actinide region. Different pairing schemes are studied in details and it is shown that covariant density functional theory is able to describe fission barriers on a level of accuracy comparable with non-relativistic calculations, even with the best phenomenological macroscopic+microscopic approaches. Triaxiality in the region of the first saddle plays a crucial role in achieving that.
Although nuclear energy density functionals are determined primarily by fitting to ground state properties, they are often applied in nuclear astrophysics to excited states, usually through the quasiparticle random phase approximation (QRPA). Here we test the Skyrme functionals SkM* and SLy4 along with the self-consistent QRPA by calculating properties of low-lying vibrational states in a large number of well-deformed even-even rare-earth nuclei. We reproduce trends in energies and transition probabilities associated with gamma-vibrational states, but our results are not perfect and indicate t…
The observed shears bands in 198Pb and 199Pb are investigated within the framework of tilted axis cranking covariant density functional theory, and the separable pairing force is adopted to consider the pairing correlations. The energy spectra, total angular momenta, and transition probabilities agree well with the experimental data. The bandhead energy differences are reproduced satisfactorily without any ad hoc renormalizations when the pairing correlations are taken into account. The angular momentum vectors are discussed in detail to analyze the pairing effects on magnetic rotations.
Systematic investigation of the accuracy of the description of the energies of deformed one-quasiparticle states has been performed in covariant density functional theory in actinide and rare-earth mass regions. The sources of the discrepancies between theory and experiment are analyzed. Although some improvements in the description of ground state configurations and one-quasiparticle spectra can be achieved by better parametrization of the relativistic mean field Lagrangian, the analysis suggests that spectroscopic quality of their description can be achieved only in theoretical framework whi…
The shell-model-like approach (SLAP) based on cranking covariant density functional theory (CDFT) with a separable pairing force is developed. The developed cranking CDFT-SLAP with separable pairing force is applied to investigate the rotational spectra in $^{60}$Fe, including the positive-parity yrast band and two negative-parity signature partner bands, in comparison with the cranking CDFT-SLAP with monopole pairing force calculations. Excellent agreement with the available data is achieved.
The current status of the application of covariant density functional theory to microscopic description of nuclear fission with main emphasis on superheavy nuclei (SHN) is reviewed. The softness of SHN in the triaxial plane leads to an emergence of several competing fission pathes in the region of the inner fission barrier in some of these nuclei. The outer fission barriers of SHN are considerably affected both by triaxiality and octupole deformation.
Systematic calculations of fission barriers allowing for triaxial deformation are performed for even-even superheavy nuclei with charge number $Z=112-120$ using three classes of covariant density functional models. The softness of nuclei in the triaxial plane leads to an emergence of several competing fission pathes in the region of the inner fission barrier in some of these nuclei. The outer fission barriers are considerably affected by triaxiality and octupole deformation. General trends of the evolution of the inner and the outer fission barrier heights are discussed as a function of the pa…
The spectroscopic quality of covariant density functional theory has been accessed by analyzing the accuracy and theoretical uncertainties in the description of spectroscopic observables. Such analysis is first presented for the energies of the single-particle states in spherical and deformed nuclei. It is also shown that the inclusion of particle-vibration coupling improves the description of the energies of predominantly single-particle states in medium and heavy-mass spherical nuclei. However, the remaining differences between theory and experiment clearly indicate missing physics and missi…
Self-consistent relativistic random-phase approximation (RPA) in the radial coordinate representation is established by using the finite amplitude method (FAM). Taking the isoscalar giant monopole resonance in spherical nuclei as example, the feasibility of the FAM for the covariant density functionals is demonstrated, and the newly developed methods are verified by the conventional RPA calculations. In the present relativistic RPA calculations, the effects of the Dirac sea can be automatically taken into account in the coordinate-space representation. The rearrangement terms due to the densit…
A systematic investigation of even-even superheavy elements in the region of proton numbers $100 \leq Z \leq 130$ and in the region of neutron numbers from the proton-drip line up to neutron number $N=196$ is presented. For this study we use five most up-to-date covariant energy density functionals of different types, with a non-linear meson coupling, with density dependent meson couplings, and with density-dependent zero-range interactions. Pairing correlations are treated within relativistic Hartree-Bogoliubov (RHB) theory based on an effective separable particle-particle interaction of fini…
We calculate properties of the ground and excited states of nuclei in the nobelium region for proton and neutron numbers of 92 <= Z <= 104 and 144 <= N <= 156, respectively. We use three different energy-density-functional (EDF) approaches, based on covariant, Skyrme, and Gogny functionals, each within two different parameter sets. A comparative analysis of the results obtained for odd-even mass staggerings, quasiparticle spectra, and moments of inertia allows us to identify single-particle and shell effects that are characteristic to these different models and to illustrate possible systemati…
The origin of the nuclear tensor interaction in the covariant energy density functional (EDF) is presented in this work, associated with the Fock diagrams of Lorentz scalar and vector couplings. With this newly obtained relativistic formalism of the nuclear tensor interaction, more distinct tensor effects are found in the Fock diagrams of the Lorentz scalar and vector couplings, as compared to the Lorentz pseudo-vector and tensor channels. A unified and self-consistent treatment on both the nuclear tensor and spin-orbit interactions, which dominate the spin-dependent features of the nuclear fo…
The isospin coupling-channel decomposition of the potential energy density functional is carried out within the covariant density functional theory, and their isospin and density dependence in particular the influence on the symmetry energy is studied. It is found that both isospin-singlet and isospin-triplet components of the potential energy play the dominant role in deciding the symmetry energy, especially when the Fock diagram is introduced. The results illustrate a quite different mechanism to the origin of the symmetry energy from the microscopic Brueckner-Hartree-Fock theory, and demons…
Five-dimensional collective Hamiltonian based on the covariant density functional theory has been applied to study the the low-lying states of even-even $^{148-162}$Gd isotopes. The shape evolution from $^{148}$Gd to $^{162}$Gd is presented. The experimental energy spectra and intraband $B(E2)$ transition probabilities for the $^{148-162}$Gd isotopes are reproduced by the present calculations. The relative $B(E2)$ ratios in present calculations are also compared with the available interacting boson model results and experimental data. It is found that the occupations of neutron $1i_{13/2}$ orb…
In contrast to the non-relativistic approaches, three-dimensional (3D) mesh calculations for the {\it relativistic} density functional theory have not been realized because of the challenges of variational collapse and fermion doubling. We overcome these difficulties by developing a novel method based on the ideas of Wilson fermion as well as the variational principle for the inverse Hamiltonian. We demonstrate the applicability of this method by applying it to $^{16}$O, $^{24}$Mg, and $^{28}$Si nuclei, providing detailed explanation on the formalism and verification of numerical implementatio…
We investigate the role of the pion in Covariant Density Functional Theory. Starting from conventional Relativistic Mean Field (RMF) theory with a non-linear coupling of the $σ$-meson and without exchange terms we add pions with a pseudo-vector coupling to the nucleons in relativistic Hartree-Fock approximation. In order to take into account the change of the pion field in the nuclear medium the effective coupling constant of the pion is treated as a free parameter. It is found that the inclusion of the pion to this sort of density functionals does not destroy the overall description of the bu…
The nuclear landscape has been investigated within the triaxial relativistic Hartree-Bogoliubov theory with the PC-PK1 density functional, and the beyond-mean-field dynamical correlation energies are taken into account by a microscopically mapped five-dimensional collective Hamiltonian without additional free parameters. The effects of triaxial deformation and dynamical correlations on the nuclear landscape are analyzed. The present results provide the best description of the experimental binding energies, in particular for medium and heavy mass regions, in comparison with the results obtained…
The Woods-Saxon basis has achieved great success in both nonrelativistic and covariant density functional theories in recent years. Due to its nonanalytical nature, however, applications of the Woods-Saxon basis are numerically complicated and computationally time consuming. In this paper, based on the deformed relativistic Hartree-Bogoliubov theory in continuum (DRHBc), we check in detail the convergence with respect to the basis space in the Dirac sea. An optimized Dirac Woods-Saxon basis is proposed, whose corresponding potential is close to the nuclear mean field. It is shown that the basi…
The analysis of statistical and systematic uncertainties and their propogation to nuclear extremes has been performed. Two extremes of nuclear landscape (neutron-rich nuclei and superheavy nuclei) have been investigated. For the first extreme, we focus on the ground state properties. For the second extreme, we pay a particular attention to theoretical uncertainties in the description of fission barriers of superheavy nuclei and their evolution on going to neutron-rich nuclei.
Covariant density functional theory (CDFT) is a modern theoretical tool for the description of nuclear structure phenomena. The current investigation aims at the global assessment of the accuracy of the description of the ground state properties of even-even nuclei. We also estimate {\it theoretical uncertainties} defined here as the spreads of predictions within four covariant energy density functionals (CEDF) in known regions of the nuclear chart and their propagation towards the neutron drip line. Large-scale axial relativistic Hartree-Bogoliubov (RHB) calculations are performed for all $Z\…
A short review of existing efforts to understand charge radii and related indicators on a global scale within the covariant density functional theory (CDFT) is presented. Using major classes of covariant energy density functionals (CEDFs), the global accuracy of the description of experimental absolute and differential charge radii within the CDFT framework has been established. This assessment is supplemented by an evaluation of theoretical statistical and systematic uncertainties in the description of charge radii. New results on the accuracy of the description of differential charge radii i…
Half-life of proton radioactivity of spherical proton emitters is studied within the scheme of covariant density functional (CDF) theory, and for the first time the potential barrier that prevents the emitted proton is extracted with the similarity renormalization group (SRG) method, in which the spin-orbit potential along with the others that turn out to be non-negligible can be derived automatically. The spectroscopic factor that is significant is also extracted from the CDF calculations. The estimated half-lives are found in good agreement with the experimental values, which not only confir…
Background: The study of additional terms in functionals is relevant to better describe nuclear structure phenomenology. Among these terms, the tensor one is known to impact nuclear structure properties, especially in neutron-rich nuclei. However, its effect has not been studied on the whole nuclear chart yet. Purpose: The impact of terms corresponding to the tensor at the Hartree level, is studied for infinite nuclear matter as well as deformed nuclei, by developing new density-dependent functionals including these terms. In particular, we study in details the improvement such a term can brin…
Excitations of chiral rotation observed in triaxial nuclei and magnetic and/or antimagnetic rotations seen in near-spherical nuclei have attracted a lot of attention. Unlike conventional rotation in well-deformed or superdeformed nuclei, here the rotational axis is not necessary coinciding with any principal axis of the nuclear density distribution. Thus, tilted axis cranking is mandatory to describe these excitations self-consistently in the framework of covariant density functional theory (CDFT). We will briefly introduce the formalism of tilted axis cranking CDFT and its application for mag…
A systematic global investigation of pairing properties based on all available experimental data on pairing indicators has been performed for the first time in the framework of covariant density functional theory. It is based on separable pairing interaction of Ref. [1]. The optimization of the scaling factors of this interaction to experimental data clearly reveals its isospin dependence in neutron subsystem. However, the situation is less certain in proton subsystem since similar accuracy of the description of pairing indicators can be achieved both with isospin-dependent and mass-dependent …
A new parametrization PC-PK1 for the nuclear covariant energy density functional with nonlinear point-coupling interaction is proposed by fitting to observables for 60 selected spherical nuclei, including the binding energies, charge radii and empirical pairing gaps. The success of PC-PK1 is illustrated in its description for infinite nuclear matter and finite nuclei including the ground-state and low-lying excited states. Particularly, PC-PK1 improves the description for isospin dependence of binding energy along either the isotopic or the isotonic chains, which makes it more reliable for app…
Time-odd mean fields (nuclear magnetism) are analyzed in the framework of covariant density functional theory (CDFT). It is shown that they always provide additional binding to the binding energies of odd-mass nuclei. This additional binding only weakly depends on the RMF parametrization reflecting good localization of the properties of time-odd mean fields in CDFT. The underlying microscopic mechanism is discussed in detail. Time-odd mean fields affect odd-even mass differences. However, our analysis suggests that the modifications of the strength of pairing correlations required to compensat…
The correlations between global description of the ground state properties (binding energies, charge radii) and nuclear matter properties of the state-of-the-art covariant energy density functionals have been studied. It was concluded that the strict enforcement of the constraints on the nuclear matter properties (NMP) defined in Ref.\ \cite{RMF-nm} will not necessary lead to the functionals with good description of the binding energies and other ground and excited state properties. In addition, it will not substantially reduce the uncertainties in the predictions of the binding energies in ne…
Construction of Nuclear Covariant Energy Density Functional from A Physics-Guaranteed Neural Network Approach
School of Physics, Anhui University（安徽大学物理学院）；Department of Physics, Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo（东京大学理学研究科物理学系）；Quark Nuclear Science Institute, The University of Tokyo（东京大学夸克核科学研究所）；RIKEN Center for Interdisciplinary Theoretical and Mathematical Sciences (iTHEMS)（理化学所跨学科理论与数学科学中心(iTHEMS)）；School of Physics and Astronomy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University（上海交通大学物理与天文学院）；School of Physics and Nuclear Energy Engineering, Beihang University（北京航空航天大学物理与能源工程学院）
The finite-amplitude method (FAM) is one of the most promising methods for optimizing the computational performance of the random-phase approximation (RPA) calculations in deformed nuclei. In this report, we will mainly focus on our recent progress in the self-consistent relativistic RPA established by using the FAM. It is found that the effects of Dirac sea can be taken into account implicitly in the coordinate-space representation and the rearrangement terms due to the density-dependent couplings can be treated without extra computational costs.
The impact of pairing correlations on the fission barriers is investigated in Relativistic Hartree Bogoliubov (RHB) theory and Relativistic Mean Field (RMF)+BCS calculations. It is concluded that the constant gap approximation in the usual RMF+BCS calculations does not provide an adequate description of the barriers. The RHB calculations show that there is a substantial difference in the predicted barrier heights between zero-range and finite range pairing forces even in the case when the pairing strengths of these two forces are adjusted to the same value of the pairing gap at the ground stat…
Considering the effects of charge screening, we propose a new numerical recipe within the framework of Thomas-Fermi approximation, where the properties of nuclear matter throughout a vast density range can be obtained self-consistently. Assuming spherical and cylindrical approximations for the Wigner-Seitz cell, typical nuclear matter structures (droplet, rod, slab, tube, bubble, and uniform) are observed. We then investigate the EOSs and microscopic structures of nuclear matter with both fixed proton fractions and $β$-equilibration, where two covariant density functionals DD-LZ1 and DD-ME2 ar…
In this work, the ground-state properties of the platinum isotopic chain, 160-238Pt, are studied within the covariant density functional theory. The calculations are carried out for a large number of even-even Pt isotopes by using the density-dependent point-coupling and the density dependent meson-exchange effective interactions. All ground-state properties such as the binding energy, separation energy, two-neutron shell gap, rms-radii for neutrons and protons and quadrupole deformation are discussed and compared with available experimental data, and with the predictions of some nuclear model…
The current investigation aims to study the ground-state properties of one of the most interesting isotopic chains in the periodic table, 94-168Sn, from the proton drip line to the neutron drip line by using the covariant density functional theory, which is a modern theoretical tool for the description of nuclear structure phenomena. The physical observables of interest include the binding energy, separation energy, two-neutron shell gap, rms-radii for protons and neutrons, pairing energy and quadrupole deformation. The calculations are performed for a wide range of neutron numbers, starting f…
The neutron and proton drip lines represent the limits of the nuclear landscape. While the proton drip line is measured experimentally up to rather high $Z$-values, the location of the neutron drip line for absolute majority of elements is based on theoretical predictions which involve extreme extrapolations. The first ever systematic investigation of the location of the proton and neutron drip lines in the covariant density functional theory has been performed by employing a set of the state-of-the-art parametrizations. Calculated theoretical uncertainties in the position of two-neutron drip …
Spin-orbit splitting is an essential ingredient for our understanding of the shell structure in nuclei. One of the most important advantages of relativistic mean-field (RMF) models in nuclear physics is the fact that the large spin-orbit (SO) potential emerges automatically from the inclusion of Lorentz-scalar and -vector potentials in the Dirac equation. It is therefore of great importance to compare the results of such models with experimental data. We investigate the size of $2p$ and $1f$ splittings for the isotone chain $^{40}$Ca, $^{38}$Ar, $^{36}$S, and $^{34}$Si in the framework of vari…
We report the first global study of dynamic correlation energies (DCEs) associated with rotational motion and quadrupole shape vibrational motion in a covariant energy density functional (CEDF) for 575 even-even nuclei with proton numbers ranging from $Z=8$ to $Z=108$ by solving a five-dimensional collective Hamiltonian, the collective parameters of which are determined from triaxial relativistic mean-field plus BCS calculation using the PC-PK1 force. After taking into account these beyond mean-field DCEs, the root-mean-square (rms) deviation with respect to nuclear masses is reduced significa…
The structure of low-lying excitation states of even-even $N=40$ isotones is studied using a five-dimensional collective Hamiltonian with the collective parameters determined from the relativistic mean-field plus BCS method with the PC-PK1 functional in the particle-hole channel and a separable paring force in the particle-particle channel. The theoretical calculations can reproduce not only the systematics of the low-lying states along the isotonic chain but also the detailed structure of the spectroscopy in a single nucleus. We find a picture of spherical-oblate-prolate shape transition alon…
Bayesian inferences on covariant density functionals from multimessenger astrophysical data: The impacts of likelihood functions of low density matter constraints
Coupling shape and pairing vibrations in a collective Hamiltonian based on nuclear energy density functionals (II): low-energy excitation spectra of triaxial nuclei
