Lately we have been tackling the problem of describing nuclear collective excitations starting from correlated realistic nucleon-nucleon (NN) interactions. The latter are constructed within the Unitary Correlation Operator Method (UCOM), starting from realistic NN potentials. It has been concluded that first-order RPA with a two-body UCOM interaction is not capable, in general, of reproducing quantitatively the properties of giant resonances (GRs), due to missing higher-order configurations and long-range correlations as well as neglected three-body terms in the Hamiltonian.
Here we report results on GRs obtained by employing a UCOM interaction based on the Argonne V18 potential in Second RPA (SRPA) calculations. The same interaction is used to describe the Hartree-Fock (HF) ground state and the residual interactions. We find that the inclusion of second-order configurations -- which effectively dress the underlying HF single-particle states with self-energy insertions -- produces sizable corrections. The effect appears essential for a realistic description of GRs when using the UCOM. We argue that effects of higher than second order should be negligible. Therefore, the UCOM-SRPA emerges as a promising tool for consistent calculations of collective states in closed-shell nuclei. This is an interesting development, given that SRPA can accommodate more physics than RPA (e.g., fragmentation). Remaining discrepancies due to the missing three-body terms and self-consistency issues of the present SRPA model are pointed out.
The properties of giant and pygmy resonances are calculated starting from chiral two-and three-nucleon interactions. The aim is to assess the predictive power of modern Hamiltonians and especially the role of the three-nucleon force. Methods based on the random-phase approximation (RPA) provide an optimal description of the modes of interest with minimal computational requirements. Here we discuss the giant resonances (GRs) of 40,48Ca isotopes and their low-energy dipole response. A comparison with previous results obtained with a transformed Argonne V18 two-nucleon potential points to certain…
The Jost function method is extended within the framework of the RPA theory to find poles on the complex energy plane that exhibit complex RPA eigenenergies. Poles corresponding to the RPA excited states such as the giant resonance of $^{16}$O electric dipole excitations were successfully found on the complex energy plane. Although the giant resonance has been known as a single resonance with large strength and width, it is found that, at least within the RPA framework, the $^{16}$O electric dipole giant resonance is formed by multiple poles, each of which is an independent pole with different…
The strength distributions of the isoscalar giant monopole resonance have been calculated in $^{16}$O, $^{40}$Ca, $^{90}$Zr, $^{112-124}$Sn, $^{144}$Sm, and $^{208}$Pb nuclei within the self-consistent random phase approximation and its extensions which include pairing correlations and quasiparticle-phonon coupling. The results are compared with the available experimental data. The problem of the nuclear matter incompressibility is discussed.
The status of different extensions of the Random Phase Approximation (RPA) is reviewed. The general framework is given within the Equation of Motion Method and the equivalent Green's function approach for the so-called Self-Consistent RPA (SCRPA). The role of the Pauli principle is analyzed. A comparison among various approaches to include Pauli correlations, in particular, renormalized RPA (r-RPA), is performed. The thermodynamic properties of nuclear matter are studied with several cluster approximations for the self-energy of the single-particle Dyson equation. More particle RPA's are short…
A systematic analysis of giant quadrupole resonances is performed for several nuclei, from $^{30}$Si to $^{208}$Pb, within the subtracted second random--phase--approximation (SSRPA) model in the framework of the energy--density--functional theory. Centroid energies and widths of the isoscalar giant quadrupole resonances are compared with the corresponding random--phase--approximation (RPA) values. We find lower SSRPA centroid energies compared to the RPA values leading, in general, to a better agreement with the experimental data. As far as the widths are concerned, we observe for both SSRPA a…
The spin-flip M1 giant resonance is explored in the framework of Random Phase Approximation on the basis of the Skyrme energy functional. A representative set of eight Skyrme parameterizations (SkT6, SkM*, SLy6, SG2, SkO, SkO', SkI4, and SV-bas) is used. Light and heavy, spherical and deformed nuclei ($^{48}$Ca, $^{158}$Gd, $^{208}$Pb, and $^{238}$U) are considered. The calculations show that spin densities play a crucial role in forming the collective shift in the spectrum. The interplay of the collective shift and spin-orbit splitting determines the quality of the description. None of the co…
The effects of ground-state correlations on the damping of isovector giant dipole resonances in $LS$ closed shell nuclei $^{16}$O and $^{40}$Ca are studied using extended random-phase-approximation (RPA) approaches derived from the time-dependent density-matrix theory. It is pointed out that unconventional two-body amplitudes of one particle--three hole and three particle--one hole types which are neglected in most extended RPA theories play an important role in the fragmentation of isovector dipole strength.
The isoscalar giant monopole resonance (GMR) in Samarium isotopes (from spherical $^{144}$Sm to deformed $^{148-154}$Sm) is investigated within the Skyrme random-phase-approximation (RPA) for a variety of Skyrme forces. The exact RPA and its separable version (SRPA) are used for spherical and deformed nuclei, respectively. The quadrupole deformation is shown to yield two effects: the GMR broadens and attains a two-peak structure due to the coupling with the quadrupole giant resonance.
In the past decades, the γ-decay of giant resonances has been studied using phenomenological models. In keeping with possible future studies performed with exotic beams, microscopically-based frameworks should be envisaged. In the present paper, we introduce a model which is entirely based on Skyrme effective interactions, and treats the ground-state decay within the fully self-consistent Random Phase Approximation (RPA) and the decay to low-lying states at the lowest order beyond RPA. The model is applied to 208Pb and 90Zr, and the results are compared with experimental data.
Gamow-Teller (GT) and spin-dipole (SD) strength distributions of four doubly magic nuclei $^{48}$Ca, $^{90}$Zr, $^{132}$Sn and $^{208}$Pb are studied by the self-consistent Hartree-Fock plus random phase approximation (RPA) method. The Skyrme forces SAMi and SAMi-T without/with tensor interactions are adopted in our calculations. The calculated strengths are compared with available experimental data. The RPA results of GT and SD strengths of all four nuclei show fine agreement with observed GT and SD resonances in energy. A small GT peak below the main GT resonance is better described by the S…
The Random Phase Approximation (RPA) and its variations and extensions are, without any doubt, the most widely used tools to describe Giant Resonances within a microscopic theory. In this chapter, we will start by discussing how RPA comes out naturally if one seeks a state with a harmonic time dependence in the space of one particle-one hole excitations on top of the ground state. It will be also shown that RPA is the simplest approach in which a ``collective'' state emerges. These are basic arguments that appear in other textbooks but are also unavoidable as a starting point for further discu…
Background: Average energies of nuclear collective modes may be efficiently and accurately computed using a non-relativistic constrained approach without reliance on a random phase approximation (RPA). Purpose: To extend the constrained approach to the relativistic domain and to establish its impact on the calibration of energy density functionals. Methods: Relativistic RPA calculations are compared against the predictions of the corresponding constrained approach using two accurately calibrated energy density functionals. Results: We find excellent agreement-at the 2% level or better-between …
The branching ratios for E1 transitions between the spin-dipole (SD) and Gamow-Teller (GT) giant resonances in $^{90}$Nb and $^{208}$Pb are evaluated. Assuming the main GT-state has the wave function close to that for the "ideal" GT-state, we reduced the problem to calculate the SD and GT strength functions. These strength functions are evaluated within an extended continuum-RPA approach.
We study structure and direct decay of the Giant Monopole Resonance (GMR) at the RPA level using the Time-Dependent Energy Density Functional method in the linear response regime in a few doubly-magic nuclei. A proper treatment of the continuum, through the use of large coordinate space, allows for a separation between the nucleus and its emitted nucleons. The microscopic structure of the GMR is investigated with the decomposition of the strength function into individual single-particles quantum numbers. A similar microscopic decomposition of the spectra of emitted nucleons by direct decay of …
Second RPA (SRPA) calculations of nuclear response are performed and analyzed. Unlike in most other SRPA applications, the ground state, approximated by the Hartree-Fock (HF) ground state, and the residual couplings are described by the same Hamiltonian and no arbitrary truncations are imposed on the model space. Finite-range interactions are used and thus divergence problems are not present. We employ a realistic interaction, derived from the Argonne V18 potenial using the unitary correlation operator method (UCOM), as well as the simple Brink-Boeker interaction. Representative results are di…
The energetic beam of (spin and isospin zero) $α$-particles remains a very efficient probe for the nuclear isoscalar giant resonances. In the present work, a microscopic folding model study of the isoscalar giant resonances in $^{208}$Pb induced by inelastic \aPb scattering at $E_{\rm lab}=240$ and 386 MeV has been performed using the (complex) CDM3Y6 interaction and nuclear transition densities given by both the collective model and Random Phase Approximation (RPA) approach. The fractions of energy weighted sum rule around the main peaks of the isoscalar monopole, dipole and quadrupole giant …
Density functional theory is a preferred microscopic method for calculation of nuclear properties over the whole nuclear chart. Besides ground-state properties, which are calculated by Hartree-Fock theory, nuclear excitations can be described by means of Random Phase Approximation (RPA). The main objective of the present work is to give Skyrme RPA formalism for spherically symmetric nuclei, using the techniques of angular-momentum coupling. Various auxiliary topics, such as Hartree-Fock theory, Coulomb integral, center-of-mass corrections and pairing, are treated as well. RPA method is derived…
The finite amplitude method (FAM) is a very efficient approach for solving the fully self-consistent random-phase approximation (RPA) equations. We use FAM to rederive the RPA matrices for general Skyrme-like functionals, calculate the electric dipole (E1) and the magnetic dipole (M1) giant resonances, and compare the results with available experimental and evaluated data. For the E1 transitions in heavy nuclei, the calculations reproduce well the resonance energy of the photoabsorption cross sections. In the case of M1 transitions, we show that the residual interaction does not affect the tra…
Within schematic models based on the Tamm-Dancoff Approximation and the Random-Phase Approximation with separable interactions, we investigate the physical conditions which determine the emergence of the Pygmy Dipole Resonance in the E1 response of atomic nuclei. We find that if some particle-hole excitation manifests a different, weaker residual interaction, an additional mode will appear, with an energy centroid closer to the distance between two major shells and therefore well below the Giant Dipole Resonance. This state, together with Giant Dipole Resonance, exhausts all the transition str…
We study the proton-neutron RPA with an extended Lipikin-Meshkov-Glick model. We pay attention to the effect of correlated ground state and the case in which neutron and proton numbers are different. The effect of the correlated ground state are tested on the basis of quasi-boson approximation. We obtain the result that RPA excitation energies and transition strengths are in a good agreement with the exact solution up to a certain strength of the particle-particle interaction. However, the transition strength becomes worse if we consider the case in which neutron and proton numbers are differe…
We have studied the uncharacteristic behavior of the measured values of the isoscalar and isovector centroid energies, ECEN, of giant resonances with multipolarity L=0-3 in 44Ca, 54Fe, 64,68Zn and 56,58,60,68Ni. For this purpose, we carried out calculations of ECEN within the spherical Hartree-Fock (HF)-based random phase approximation (RPA) theory with 33 different Skyrme-type effective nucleon-nucleon interactions. We have also determined the Pearson linear correlation coefficients between the calculated centroid energies and the various nuclear matter (NM) properties associated with each in…
Semimicroscopical description of the simplest photonuclear reactions accompanied by excitation of the giant dipole resonance in medium-heavy mass nuclei
We present results of the time blocking approximation (TBA) on giant resonances in light, medium and heavy mass nuclei. The TBA is an extension of the widely used random-phase approximation (RPA) adding complex configurations by coupling to phonon excitations. A new method for handling the single-particle continuum is developed and applied in the present calculations. We investigate in detail the dependence of the numerical results on the size of the single particle space and the number of phonons as well as on nuclear matter properties. Our approach is self-consistent, based on an energy-dens…
Coupled equations for even and odd particle number correlation functions are set up via the equation of motion method. For the even particle number case this leads to self-consistent RPA (SCRPA) equations already known from the literature. From the equations of the odd particle number case the single particle occupation probabilities are obtained in a self-consistent way. This is the essential new procedure of this work. Both, even and odd particle number cases are based on the same correlated vacuum and, thus, are coupled equations. Applications to the Lipkin model and the 1D Hubbard model gi…
We analyze the influence of the density dependence of the symmetry energy on the average excitation energy of the isoscalar giant monopole resonance (GMR) in stable and exotic neutron-rich nuclei by applying the relativistic extended Thomas-Fermi method in scaling and constrained calculations. For the effective nuclear interaction, we employ the relativistic mean field model supplemented by an isoscalar-isovector meson coupling that allows one to modify the density dependence of the symmetry energy without compromising the success of the model for binding energies and charge radii. The semicla…
We investigate giant resonances of spherical nuclei on the basis of the Argonne V18 potential after unitary transformation within the Similarity Renormalization Group or the Unitary Correlation Operator Method supplemented by a phenomenological three-body contact interaction. Such Hamiltonians can provide a good description of ground-state energies and radii within Hartree-Fock plus low-order many-body perturbation theory. The standard Random Phase Approximation is applied here to calculate the isoscalar monopole, isovector dipole, and isoscalar quadrupole excitation modes of the 40Ca, 90Zr, a…
A comparative analysis of toroidal, compressional and vortical dipole strengths in the spherical $^{144}$Sm and the deformed $^{154}$Sm is performed within the random-phase-approximation using a set of different Skyrme forces. Isoscalar (T=0), isovector (T=1), and electromagnetic excitation channels are considered. The role of the nuclear convection $j_{\text{con}}$ and magnetization $j_{\text{mag}}$ currents is inspected. It is shown that the deformation leads to an appreciable redistribution of the strengths and causes a spectacular deformation splitting (exceeding 5 MeV) of the isoscalar co…
Using the Hartree-Fock plus random-phase-approximation (HF+RPA), we study the impurity effect of $Λ$ hyperon on the collective vibrational excitations of double-$Λ$ hypernuclei. To this end, we employ a Skyrme-type $ΛN$ and $ΛΛ$ interactions for the HF calculations, and the residual interactions for RPA derived with the same interactions. We find that inclusion of two $Λ$ hyperons in $^{16}$O shifts the energy of the collective states towards higher energies. In particular, the energy of the giant monopole resonance of $^{\,\,18}_{ΛΛ}$O, as well as that of $^{210}_{ΛΛ}$Pb, becomes larger. This…
