A detailed study of the 4He longitudinal response function R_L(ω,q) is performed at different kinematics, with particular emphasis on the role of three-nucleon forces. The effects shown are the results of an ab initio calculation where the full four-body continuum dynamics is considered via the Lorentz integral transform method. The contributions of the various multipoles to the longitudinal response function are analyzed and integral properties of the response are discussed in addition. The Argonne V18 nucleon-nucleon interaction and two different three-nucleon force models (Urbana IX, Tucson-Melbourne') are used. At lower momentum transfer (q<= 200$ MeV/c) three-nucleon forces play an important role. One even finds a dependence of R_L on the three-nucleon force model itself with differences up to 10%. Thus a Rosenbluth separation of the inclusive electron scattering cross section of 4He at low momentum transfer would be of high value in view of a discrimination between different three-nucleon force models.
Distorted wave impulse approximation analysis for spin observables in nucleon quasi-elastic scattering and enhancement of the spin-longitudinal response
The role of three-nucleon forces in ab initio calculations of nuclear systems is investigated. The difference between genuine and induced many-nucleon forces is emphasized. Induced forces arise in the process of solving the nuclear many-body problem as technical intermediaries towards calculationally converged results. Genuine forces make up the Hamiltonian; they represent the chosen underlying dynamics. The hierarchy of contributions arising from two-, three- and many-nucleon forces is discussed. Signals for the need of the inclusion of genuine three-nucleon forces are studied in nuclear syst…
Historic steps in the emergence, the derivation and the use of three-nucleon forces, genuine and effective, for calculations of few-nucleon systems and of the structure of heavier nuclei are recalled. The research focus is on few-nucleon systems. The need of three-nucleon forces for a successful description of some data and the remaining puzzles of other data, not explainable despite the inclusion of three-nucleon forces, are discussed.
We derive density-dependent corrections to the in-medium nucleon-nucleon interaction from the leading-order chiral three-nucleon force. To this order there are six distinct one-loop diagrams contributing to the in-medium nucleon-nucleon scattering T-matrix. Analytic expressions are presented for each of these in both isospin-symmetric nuclear matter as well as nuclear matter with a small isospin asymmetry. The results are combined with the low-momentum nucleon-nucleon potential V(low-k) to obtain an effective density-dependent interaction suitable for nuclear structure calculations. The in-med…
We investigate the importance of the three-nucleon (3N) force contact terms in elastic nucleon-deuteron (Nd) scattering by applying the N$^4$LO$^+$ chiral semi-local momentum space (SMS) regularized nucleon-nucleon (NN) chiral potential supplemented by N$^2$LO and all subleading N$^4$LO three-nucleon force (3NF) contact terms. Strength parameters of the contact terms were obtained by least squares fitting of theoretical predictions to cross section and analyzing powers data at three energies of the impinging nucleon. Although the N$^3$LO contributions to the 3N force were completely neglected,…
We report quantum Monte Carlo calculations of single-$Λ$ hypernuclei for $A<50$ based on phenomenological two- and three-body hyperon-nucleon forces. We present results for the $Λ$ separation energy in different hyperon orbits, showing that the accuracy of theoretical predictions exceeds that of currently available experimental data, especially for medium-mass hypernuclei. We show the results of a sensitivity study that indicates the possibility to investigate the nucleon-isospin dependence of the three-body hyperon-nucleon-nucleon force in the medium-mass region of the hypernuclear chart, whe…
We apply improved nucleon-nucleon potentials up to fifth order in chiral effective field theory, along with a new analysis of the theoretical truncation errors, to study nucleon-deuteron (Nd) scattering and selected low-energy observables in 3H, 4He, and 6Li. Calculations beyond second order differ from experiment well outside the range of quantified uncertainties, providing truly unambiguous evidence for missing three-nucleon forces within the employed framework. The sizes of the required three-nucleon force contributions agree well with expectations based on Weinberg's power counting. We ide…
We investigate the sensitivity of the non-exclusive nucleon induced deuteron breakup reaction to the three-nucleon interaction and distributions of three-nucleon force effects in inclusive spectra. To this end we solve the three-nucleon Faddeev equation at a number of incoming nucleon laboratory energies using the CD Bonn nucleon-nucleon interaction alone or combined with the 2π-exchange Tucson-Melbourne three-nucleon force. Based on these solutions energy spectra of an outgoing nucleon, at a specified detection angle as well as spectra integrated over that angle, are calculated. By integratin…
The three-nucleon bound and scattering equations are solved in momentum space for a coupled-channel Hamiltonian. The Hamiltonian couples the purely nucleonic sector of Hilbert space with a sector in which one nucleon is excited to a $Δ$ isobar. The interaction consists of irreducible two-baryon and irreducible three-baryon potentials. The calculation keeps only the purely nucleonic one among the irreducible three-baryon potentials. The coupled-channel two-baryon potential yields additional reducible contributions to the three-nucleon force. The Coulomb interaction between the two protons is in…
We extend our formulation of relativistic three-nucleon Faddeev equations to include both pairwise interactions and a three-nucleon force. Exact Poincare invariance is realized by adding interactions to the mass Casimir operator (rest Hamiltonian) of the non-interacting system without changing the spin Casimir operator. This is achieved by using interactions defined by rotationally invariant kernels that are functions of internal momentum variables and single-particle spins that undergo identical Wigner rotations. To solve the resulting equations one needs matrix elements of the three-nucleon …
We demonstrate a computational scheme which drastically decreases the required time to get theoretical predictions based on chiral two- and three-nucleon forces for observables in three-nucleon continuum. For a three-nucleon force containing N short-range terms all workload is reduced to solving N+1 Faddeev-type integral equations. That done, computation of observables for any combination of strengths of the contact terms is done in a flash. We demonstrate on example of the elastic nucleon-deuteron scattering observables the high precision of the proposed emulator and its capability to reprodu…
We formulate a general and exact method of partial wave decomposition (PWD) of any nucleon-nucleon (NN) potential and any three-nucleon (3N) force. The approach allows one to efficiently use symbolic algebra software to generate the interaction dependent part of the program code calculating the interaction. We demonstrate the feasibility of this approach for the one-boson exchange BonnB potential, a recent nucleon-nucleon chiral force and the chiral two-pion-exchange three-nucleon force. In all cases very good agreement between the new and the traditional PWD is found. The automated PWD offere…
We investigate single-particle properties in infinite nuclear matter using a variety of interactions. One of the focal points is to study the impact of chiral three-nucleon forces on the nucleon self-energy and related quantities, such as spectral function and momentum distribution. We also present results for pairing correlations in nuclear matter. We find characteristic and systematic differences between the predictions obtained with the (softer) chiral interactions and those based on one-boson-exchange or phenomenology.
The contribution of a chiral three-nucleon force to the strength of an effective spin-orbit coupling is estimated. We first construct a reduced two-body interaction by folding one-nucleon degrees of freedom of the three-nucleon force in nuclear matter. The spin-orbit strength is evaluated by a Scheerbaum factor obtained by the $G$-matrix calculation in nuclear matter with the two-nucleon interaction plus the reduced two-nucleon interaction. The problem of the insufficiency of modern realistic two-nucleon interactions to account for the empirical spin-orbit strength is resolved. It is also indi…
We present a perturbative approach to solving the three-nucleon continuum Faddeev equation. This approach is particularly well suited to dealing with variable strengths of contact terms in a chiral three-nucleon force. We use examples of observables in the elastic nucleon-deuteron scattering as well as in the deuteron breakup reaction to demonstrate high precision of the proposed procedure and its capability to reproduce exact results. A significant reduction of computer time achieved by the perturbative approach in comparison to exact treatment makes this approach valuable for fine-tuning of …
We perform ab initio calculations for nuclei around ^{16}O, ^{40}Ca, and ^{56}Ni using realistic nucleon-nucleon forces. In particular, ^{56}Ni is computed as the heaviest nucleus in this kind of ab initio calculation. Ground-state and single-particle energies including three-body-cluster effects are obtained within the framework of the unitary-model-operator approach. It is shown that the CD-Bonn nucleon-nucleon potential gives quite good results close to the experimental values for all nuclei in the present work.
We present the first study of pairing in nuclei including three-nucleon forces. We perform systematic calculations of the odd-even mass staggering generated using a microscopic pairing interaction at first order in chiral low-momentum interactions. Significant repulsive contributions from the leading chiral three-nucleon forces are found. Two- and three-nucleon interactions combined account for approximately 70% of the experimental pairing gaps, which leaves room for self-energy and induced interaction effects that are expected to be overall attractive in nuclei.
Long-range contributions to the three-nucleon force that have been recently worked out in chiral effective field theory at next-to-next-to-next-to-leading order are for the first time included in the triton and the doublet nucleon-deuteron scattering length calculations. The strengths of the two short-range terms available at this order in the chiral expansion are determined from the triton binding energy and the neutron-deuteron doublet scattering length. The structure of the resulting three-nucleon force is explored and effects for the two-nucleon correlation function in the triton are inves…
We discuss the application of the chiral N3LO forces to three-nucleon reactions and point to the challenges which will have to be addressed. Present approaches to solve three-nucleon Faddeev equations are based on a partial-wave decomposition. A rapid increase of the number of terms contributing to the chiral three-nucleon force when increasing the order of the chiral expansion from N2LO to N3LO forced us to develop a fast and effective method of automatized partial wave decomposition. At low energies of the incoming nucleon below about 20MeV, where only a limited number of partial waves is re…
Microscopic calculations based on realistic nuclear hamiltonians, while yielding accurate results for the energies of the ground and low-lying excited states of nuclei with $A \leq 12$, fail to reproduce the empirical equilibrium properties of nuclear matter, that are known to be significantly affected by three-nucleon forces. We discuss a scheme suitable to construct a density-dependent two-nucleon potential, in which the effects of $n$-particle interactions can be included by integrating out the degrees of freedom of $(n-2)$-nucleons. Our approach, based on the formalism of correlated basis …
Using modern nucleon-nucleon interactions in the description of the $A=3,4$ nuclei, it is not possible to reproduce both the three- and four-nucleon binding energies simultaneously. This is one manifestation of the necessity of including a three-nucleon force in the nuclear Hamiltonian. In this paper we will perform a comparative study of some, widely used, three-nucleon force models. We will analyze their capability to describe the aforementioned binding energies as well as the $n-d$ doublet scattering length. A correct description of these quantities can be considered a stringent requirement…
