Background: A newly identified dripline nucleus $^{31}$F offers a unique opportunity to study the two-neutron ($2n$) correlation at the east shore of the island of inversion where the $N = 28$ shell closure is lost.
Purpose: We aim to present the first three-body theoretical results for the radius and total reaction cross sections of $^{31}$F. This will further help to investigate how the pairing and breakdown of the $N = 28$ shell closure influence the formation of the $2n$-halo structure and the anti-halo effect in this mass region.
Methods: A $^{29}$F$+n+n$ three-body system is described by the cluster orbital shell model, and its total reaction cross section is calculated by the Glauber theory.
Results: Our three-body calculations predict 3.48-3.70 fm for the root-mean-square radius of $^{31}$F, which corresponds to the total reaction cross section of 1530 (1410)-1640 (1500) mb for a carbon target at 240 (900) MeV/nucleon. The binding mechanism and halo formation in $^{31}$F are discussed.
Conclusions: The present study suggests a novel anti-halo effect in this mass region: When the pairing overcome the energy gap between the $p_{3/2}$ and $f_{7/2}$ orbits, the inversion of the occupation number of these orbits takes place, and it diminishes the $2n$-halo structure.
We discuss pairing correlations in weakly bound neutron rich nuclei, by using the coordinate-space Hartree-Fock-Bogolyubov approach which allows to take properly into account the coupling to particle continuum. We show that the additional pairing binding energy acts against a development of an infinite rms radius, even in situations when an l=0 single-particle orbital becomes unbound.
With the help of a unified description of the nuclear structure and of the direct reaction mechanism we show that a recent 1H(11Li,9Li)3H experiment provides, for the first time in nuclear physics, direct evidence of phonon mediated pairing.
Using a Glauber model with our relativistic fully microscopic structure model input, we give a full description of the halo nature of 31Ne that includes a self-consistent use of pairing and continuum contributions that makes predictions consistent with reaction cross section measurements. Our predictions of total reaction and one-neutron removal cross sections of 31Ne on a Carbon target were significantly enhanced compared with those of neighboring Neon isotopes, agreeing well with measurements at 240 MeV/nucleon and consistent with a single neutron halo. Furthermore, our calculations of the i…
We explore the evolution of the structure of the ground state of a nucleus with two valence nucleons as the system approaches the two particle threshold. We use a three-body model of $core+n+n$ where the core is deformed and allowed to excite. We find that both NN correlations and correlations due to deformation/excitation of the core inhibit the formation of halos. Our results suggest that it is unlikely to find halo nuclei on the dripline of deformed nuclei.
The Relativistic Hartree Bogoliubov (RHB) model is applied in the self-consistent mean-field approximation to the description of the neutron halo in the mass region above the s-d shell. Pairing correlations and the coupling to particle continuum states are described by finite range two-body forces. Finite element methods are used in the coordinate space discretization of the coupled system of Dirac-Hartree-Bogoliubov integro-differential eigenvalue equations, and Klein-Gordon equations for the meson fields. Calculations are performed for the isotopic chains of Ne and C nuclei. We find evidence…
We study the roles of the tensor and pairing correlations on the halo formation in 11Li with an extended 9Li+n+n model. We first solve the ground state of 9Li in the shell model basis by taking 2p-2h states using the Gaussian functions with variational size parameters to take into account the tensor correlation fully. In 11Li, the tensor and pairing correlations in 9Li are Pauli-blocked by additional two neutrons, which work coherently to make the configurations containing the 0p1/2 state pushed up and close to those containing the 1s1/2 state. Hence, the pairing interaction works efficiently …
Important features of low-frequency collective vibrational excitations in neutron drip line nuclei are studied. We emphasize that pairing anti-halo effect in the Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov (HFB) theory play crucial roles to realize collective motions in loosely bound nuclei. We study the spatial properties of one particle - one hole (1p-1h) states with/without selfconsistent pairing correlations by solving simplified HF(B) equations in coordinate space. Next, by performing Skyrme-HFB plus selfconsistent quasiparticle random phase approximation (QRPA) we investigate the first 2+ states in neutron …
Matter radii of the $^{34-40}$Mg nuclei are investigated by self-consistent Hartree-Fock-Bogolyubov calculations assuming the axial symmetry. With the semi-realistic M3Y-P6 interaction, the $N$-dependence of the matter radii observed in the experiments is reproduced excellently. Both the pairing and the deformation play significant roles in an intertwined manner. The $^{35}$Mg nucleus has a smaller radius than the neighboring even-$N$ nuclei, which is attributed to its smaller deformation. In contrast, a neutron halo is obtained in $^{37}$Mg. We point out that, in contrast to the pairing anti-…
The influence of pairing correlations on the neutron root mean square (rms) radius of nuclei is investigated in the framework of self-consistent Skyrme Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov calculations. The continuum is treated appropriately by the Green's function techniques. As an example the nucleus $^{124}$Zr is treated for a varying strength of pairing correlations. We find that, as the pairing strength increases, the neutron rms radius first shrinks, reaches a minimum and beyond this point it expands again. The shrinkage is due to the the so-called `pairing anti-halo effect', i. e. due to the decreas…
We investigate the spatial extension of weakly bound Ne and C isotopes by taking into account the pairing correlation with the Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov (HFB) method and a 3-body model, respectively. We show that the odd-even staggering in the reaction cross sections of $^{30,31,32}$Ne and $^{14,15,16}$C are successfully reproduced, and thus the staggering can be attributed to the pairing anti-halo effect. A correlation between a one-neutron separation energy and the anti-halo effect is demonstrated for $s$- and p-waves using the HFB wave functions.
With the relativistic Coulomb wave function boundary condition, the energies, widths and wave functions of the single proton resonant orbitals for $^{17}$Ne are studied by the analytical continuation of the coupling constant (ACCC) approach within the framework of the relativistic mean field (RMF) theory. Pairing correlations and contributions from the single-particle resonant orbitals in the continuum are taken into consideration by the resonant Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) approach, in which constant pairing strength is used. It can be seen that the fully self-consistent calculations with…
The pairing anti-halo effect is a phenomenon that a pairing correlation suppresses a divergence of nuclear radius, which happens for single-particle states with orbital angular momenta of $l$ = 0 and 1 in the limit of vanishing binding energy. While this effect has mainly been discussed in terms of Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov (HFB) theory, we here use a three-body model and provide its new intuitive concept as a localized wave packet for a quasi-particle, that is, a coherent superposition of a weakly bound and continuum wave functions due to a pairing interaction. We show that the one-particle den…
The influence of pairing correlations on the nuclear size and in particular on the formation of nuclear halos is studied in the framework of relativistic continuum Hartree-Bogoliubov (RCHB) theory. It turns out that the contributions from the weakly-bound orbits with low orbital angular momenta $l$ play an important role. As an example, we investigate the neutron-rich Mg isotopes as a function of the pairing strength in situations, where the neuron Fermi surface are below, between and above two weakly-bound $2p$ levels. We find that the size of the pairing correlations has a two-fold influence…
The formation of a higher-order singularity by the coalescence of two exceptional points is studied in the anti-hermitian limit of the complex-extended 3-level Richardson-Gaudin model.
Nuclear many-body theory is used to study nuclear matter and finite nuclei at extreme isospin. In-medium interactions in asymmetric nuclear matter are obtained from (Dirac-) Brueckner theory. Neutron skin formation in Ni and Sn isotopes is investigated by relativistic mean-field calculations in DDRH theory with density dependent meson-nucleon vertices. Applications to light nuclei are discussed with special emphasis on pairing and core polarization in weakly bound nuclei. Approaches accounting for continuum coupling in dripline pairing and core polarization are presented. Calculations for the …
Particle and pairing densities in spherical even-even neutron-rich nuclei are studied within the Skyrme-Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov approach with the density-dependent pairing interaction. The influence of the density dependence of the pairing interaction on asymptotic properties of nucleonic distributions are analyzed. It is demonstrated that the size of the neutron halo dramatically depends on the behavior of the pairing interaction at low density.
We perform a detailed analysis for the structure of 31F, which is a candidate of the halo nucleus. We calculate the radius and reaction cross-section using a three-body model of 29F+n+n and discuss how the competition between the neutron-pairing and the single-particle energy induces structural changes of 31F. The present analysis further clarifies a new aspect of the anti-halo efect that suppresses the halo structure.
We have investigated the halo formation in the neutron rich $\rm{Ca}$ isotopes within the framework of recently proposed relativistic mean-field plus BCS (RMF+BCS) approach wherein the single particle continuum corresponding to the RMF is replaced by a set of discrete positive energy states for the calculation of pairing energy. For the neutron rich $\rm{Ca}$ isotopes in the vicinity of neutron drip-line, it is found that further addition of neutrons causes a rapid increase in the neutron rms radius with a very small increase in the binding energy, indicating thereby the occurrence of halos. T…
A study of the effect of deformation and pairing on the development of halo nuclei is presented. Exploratory three-body $core+n+n$ calculations show that both the NN interaction and the deformation/excitation of the core hinder the formation of the halo. Preliminary self-consistent mean-field calculations are used to search for regions in the nuclear chart where halos could potentially develop. These are also briefly discussed.
An unified shell model scheme to evaluate simultaneously the contribution of antibound states and Gamow resonances to the nuclear halos is presented. The calculations, performed in the complex energy plane, are applied to the case of $^{11}$Li. It is found that $^{11}$Li may develop a resonant state excitation near the breakup threshold.
Relativistic Hartree-Bogoliubov (RHB) theory in coordinate space is used to describe the chain of even-even Zirconium isotopes reaching from Zr116 to the drip line nucleus Zr140. Pairing correlations are taken into account by a density dependent force of zero range. For neutron numbers larger than the magic number N=82 a giant neutron halo outside the core of Zr122 is observed. It is formed by up to six neutrons.
We study the exotic deformed nucleus $^{31}$Ne using an approach that combines self-consistent structure and reaction theory. We utilize the fully-relativistic, microscopic deformed Hartree-Bogoliubov theory in continuum (DRHBc) to demonstrate that deformation and pairing correlations give rise to a halo structure with large-amplitude $p$-wave configuration in $^{31}$Ne. We then use the valence nucleon wave functions and angle-averaged density distributions of $^{30}$Ne from this model as input for a Glauber reaction model to study the observables of neutron-rich Neon isotopes and search for h…
We make a systematic study of Li isotopes (A=9,10,11) in the tensor optimized shell model for 9Li and treat the additional valence neutrons in the cluster model approach by taking into account the Pauli-blocking effect caused by the tensor and pairing correlations. We describe the tensor correlations in 9Li fully in the tensor-optimized shell model, where the variation of the size parameters of the single particle orbits is essential for getting strong tensor correlations. We have shown in our previous study that in $^{10,11}$Li the tensor and pairing correlations in 9Li are Pauli-blocked by a…
Role of pairing correlation for emergence of low-frequency vibrational excitations in neutron drip line nuclei is discussed paying special attention to neutrons with small orbital angular momentum l. Self-consistent pairing correlation in the Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov (HFB) theory causes the change of the spatial structure of the quasiparticle wave functions; "the pairing anti-halo effect" in the lower component and "the broadening effect" in the upper component. The resultant spatial distribution of the two-quasiparticle states among low-l neutrons, "the broad localization", brings about qualit…
The open quantum system formulation of the nuclear shell model, the so-called Gamow Shell Model (GSM), is a multi-configurational SM that employs a single-particle basis given by the Berggren ensemble consisting of Gamow states and the non-resonant continuum of scattering states. The GSM is of particular importance for weakly bound/unbound nuclear states where both many-body correlations and the coupling to decay channels are essential. In this context, we investigate the role of l=0 antibound (virtual) neutron single-particle states in the shell model description of loosely bound wave functio…
We present a microscopic study of halo nuclei, starting from the Paris and Bonn potentials and employing a two-frequency shell model approach. It is found that the core-polarization effect is dramatically suppressed in such nuclei. Consequently the effective interaction for halo nucleons is almost entirely given by the bare G-matrix alone, which presently can be evaluated with a high degree of accuracy. The experimental pairing energies between the two halo neutrons in $^6$He and $^{11}$Li nuclei are satisfactorily reproduced by our calculation. It is suggested that the fundamental nucleon-nuc…
The BCS and HFB theories which can accommodate the pairing correlations in the ground states of atomic nuclei are presented. As an application of the pairing theories, we investigate the spatial extension of weakly bound Ne and C isotopes by taking into account the pairing correlation with the Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov (HFB) method and a 3-body model, respectively. We show that the odd-even staggering in the reaction cross sections of $^{30,31,32}$Ne and $^{14,15,16}$C are successfully reproduced, and thus the staggering can be attributed to the unique role of pairing correlations in nuclei far …
We present a simple scheme for taking into account the resonant continuum coupling in the Relativistic Mean Field- BCS (RMF-BCS) calculations. In this scheme, applied before in non-relativistic calculations, the effect of the resonant continuum on pairing correlations is introduced through the scattering wave functions located in the region of the resonant states. These states are found by solving the relativistic mean field equations with scattering-type boundary conditions for continuum spectrum. The calculations are done for the neutron-rich Zr isotopes. It is shown that the sudden increase…
Paring correlations in weakly bound nuclei on the edge of neutron drip line is studied by using a three-body model. A density-dependent contact interaction is employed to calculate the ground state of halo nuclei $^{6}$He and $^{11}$Li, as well as a skin nucleus $^{24}$O. Dipole excitations in these nuclei are also studied within the same model. We point out that the di-neutron type correlation plays a dominant role in the halo nuclei $^{6}$He and $^{11}$Li having the coupled spin of the two neutrons $S$=0, while the correlation similar to the BCS type is important in $^{24}$O. Contributions o…
Recent data resulting from studies of two-nucleon transfer reaction on 11Li, analyzed through a unified nuclear-structure-direct-reaction theory have provided strong direct as well as indirect confirmation, through the population of the first excited state of 9Li and of the observation of a strongly quenched ground state transition, of the prediction that phonon mediated pairing interaction is the main mechanism binding the neutron halo of the 8.5 ms-lived 11Li nucleus. In other words, the ground state of 11Li can be viewed as a neutron Cooper pair bound to the 9Li core, mainly through the exc…
Making use of the fact that the collective modes associated with the spontaneous (static and dynamic) violation of gauge invariance in atomic nuclei (pairing rotations and pairing vibrations) are amenable to a simple, quite accurate nuclear structure description (BCS and QRPA respectively), it is possible to quantitatively test the reaction mechanism which is at the basis of two-nucleon transfer reactions, specific probe of pairing in nuclei. With the help of the static and dynamic mean field spectroscopic amplitudes, taking into account successive and simultaneous transfer channels properly c…
We study anti-halo effects on reaction cross sections $σ_{\rm R}$ for $^{14,15,16}$C scattering from a $^{12}$C target at 83~MeV/nucleon, using the $g$-matrix double-folding model. $^{15}$C is described by the $^{14}$C~+~$n$ two-body model that reproduces the measured large s-wave spectroscopic factor, i.e., the shell inversion that the 1s$_{1/2}$ orbital is lower than the 0d$_{5/2}$ orbital in energy. $^{16}$C is described by the $^{14}$C~+~$n$~+~$n$ three-body model with the phenomenological three-body force (3BF) that explains the measured small s-wave spectroscopic factor. The 3BF allows t…
We study the two-neutron correlations in the ground state of the weakly-bound two-neutron halo nucleus $^{22}$C sitting at the edge of the neutron-drip line and also in the unbound nucleus $^{26}$O sitting beyond the neutron dripline. For the present study, we employ a three-body (core$+n+n$) structure model designed for describing the two-neutron halo system by explicit inclusion of unbound continuum states of the subsystem (core$+n$). We use either a density-independent or a density-dependent contact-delta interaction to describe the neutron-neutron interaction and its strength is varied to …
Assuming a~simple spherical relativistic mean field model of the nucleus, we estimate the width of the antiproton--neutron annihilation ($Γ_n$) and the width of antiproton--proton ($Γ_p$) annihilation, in an antiprotonic atom system. This allows us to determine the halo factor $f$, which is then discussed in the context of experimental data obtained in measurements recently done on LEAR utility at CERN. Another quantity which characterizes the deviation of the average nuclear densities ratio from the corresponding ratio of the homogeneous densities is introduced too. It was shown that it is al…
We present a theoretical study of the finite-temperature Kosterlitz-Thouless (KT) and vortex-antivortex lattice (VAL) melting transitions in two-dimensional Fermi gases with $p$- or $d$-wave pairing. For both pairings, when the interaction is tuned from weak to strong attractions, we observe a quantum phase transition from the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) superfluidity to the Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) of difermions. The KT and VAL transition temperatures increase during this BCS-BEC transition and approach constant values in the deep BEC region. The BCS-BEC transition is characterize…
We study pairing in low-density neutron matter including the screening interaction due to the exchange of particle-hole and RPA excitations. As bare force we employ the effective low-momentum interaction $V_{low\,k}$, while the Fermi-liquid parameters are taken from a phenomenological energy density functional (SLy4) which correctly reproduces the equation of state of neutron matter. At low density, we find screening, i.e., pairing is reduced, while at higher densities, we find anti-screening, i.e., pairing is enhanced. This enhancement is mostly due to the strongly attractive Landau parameter…
We discuss the role of pairing anti-halo effect in the observed odd-even staggering in reaction cross sections for $^{30,31,32}$Ne and $^{36,37,38}$Mg isotopes by taking into account the ground state deformation of these nuclei. To this end, we construct the ground state density for the $^{30,31}$Ne and $^{36,37}$Mg nuclei based on a deformed Woods-Saxon potential, while for the $^{32}$Ne and $^{38}$Mg nuclei we also take into account the pairing correlation using the Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov method. We demonstrate that, when the one-neutron separation energy is small for the odd-mass nuclei, a…
The exotic phenomenon of two-neutron halos and 2n-radioactivity are explored in the neutron-rich $^{40,42,44}$Mg by employing various variants of the relativistic mean-field approach. The extended tail of spatial density distributions including the enhanced neutron radii and skin thickness, pairing correlations, single-particle spectrum and wave functions predict $^{40,42,44}$Mg to be strong candidates for deformed neutron halos. Weakening of magicity at N$=$28 plays a significant role in the existence of a weakly bound halo in $^{40}$Mg which is currently the heaviest isotope of Mg accessible…
