The recent experimental observation of isospin symmetry breaking (ISB) in the ground states of the $T=3/2$ mirror pair $^{73}$Sr - $^{73}$Br is theoretically studied using large-scale shell model calculations. The large valence space and the successful PFSDG-U effective interaction used for the nuclear part of the problem capture possible structural changes and provide a robust basis to treat the ISB effects of both electromagnetic and non-electromagnetic origin. The calculated shifts and mirror-energy-differences are consistent with the inversion of the $I^π$= 1/2$^{-}, 5/2^{-}$ states between $^{73}$Sr - $^{73}$Br, and suggest that the role played by the Coulomb interaction is dominant. An isospin breaking contribution of nuclear origin is estimated to be $\approx 25$ keV.
The assumption of an exact isospin symmetry would imply equal strengths for mirror E1 transitions (at least, in the long-wavelength limit). Actually, large violations of this symmetry rule have been indicated by a number of experimental results, the last of which is the 67As - 67Se doublet investigated at GAMMASPHERE. Here, we examine in detail various possible origins of the observed asymmetry. The coherent effect of Coulomb-induced mixing with the high-lying Giant Isovector Monopole Resonance is proposed as the most probable process to produce a large asymmetry in the E1 transitions, with co…
This paper overviews various phenomena related to the concept of isospin symmetry. The focus is on N~Z nuclei, which are excellent laboratories of isospin physics. The theoretical framework applied is nuclear Density Functional Theory and its isospin- and angular-momentum projected extensions, as well as symmetry-projected multi-reference models. The topics covered include: isospin impurities, superallowed beta decays, beta-transitions in mirror nuclei, isospin breaking hadronic interactions, mirror and triplet binding energy differences, and isoscalar pairing.
Isospin symmetry breaking (ISB) effects in the charge radius difference $ΔR_{\rm ch}$ of mirror nuclei are studied using the test example of ${}^{48}$Ca and ${}^{48}$Ni. This choice allows for a transparent study of ISB contributions since paring and deformation effects, commonly required for the study of mirror nuclei, can be neglected in this specific pair. The connection of $ΔR_{\rm ch}$ with the nuclear Equation of State and the effect of ISB on such a relation are discussed according to an Energy Density Functional approach. We find that nuclear ISB effects may shift the estimated value f…
Background: The superallowed beta-decay rates provide stringent constraints on physics beyond the Standard Model of particle physics. To extract crucial information about the electroweak force, small isospin-breaking corrections to the Fermi matrix element of superallowed transitions must be applied. Purpose: We perform systematic calculations of isospin-breaking corrections to superallowed beta-decays and estimate theoretical uncertainties related to the basis truncation, time-odd polarization effects related to the intrinsic symmetry of the underlying Slater determinants, and to the function…
Isospin-symmetry breaking is responsible for the energy difference of excited states in mirror nuclei. It also influences the coefficient of the isobaric multiplet mass equation. In the present work, we extensively investigate isospin-symmetry breaking in medium mass nuclei within ab initio frameworks. For this, we employ the ab initio valence-space in-medium similarity renormalization group approach, in which charge-symmetry and charge-independence breakings are included in the adopted nuclear force. The mirror energies of sd- and pf- shell nuclei are computed for that matter. The effects of …
We analyze and propose a solution to the apparent inconsistency between our current knowledge of the Equation of State of asymmetric nuclear matter, the energy of the Isobaric Analog State (IAS) in a heavy nucleus such as 208Pb, and the isospin symmetry breaking forces in the nuclear medium. This is achieved by performing state-of-the-art Hartree-Fock plus Random Phase Approximation calculations of the IAS that include all isospin symmetry breaking contributions. To this aim, we propose a new effective interaction that is successful in reproducing the IAS excitation energy without compromising…
We report the first branching-ratio measurement of the superallowed 0+-to-0+ beta transition from 38Ca. The result, 0.7728(16), leads to an ft value of 3062.3(68)s with a relative precision of +/-0.2%. This makes possible a high-precision comparison of the ft values for the mirror superallowed transitions, 38Ca-to-38mK and 38mK-to-38Ar, which sensitively tests the isospin symmetry-breaking corrections required to extract Vud, the up-down quark-mixing element of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa (CKM) matrix, from superallowed beta decay. The result supports the corrections currently used, and poin…
A precision measurement of the gamma yields following the beta decay of 32Cl has determined its isobaric analogue branch to be (22.47^{+0.21}_{-0.19})%. Since it is an almost pure Fermi decay, we can also determine the amount of isospin-symmetry breaking in this superallowed transition. We find a very large value, delta_C=5.3(9)%, in agreement with a shell-model calculation. This result sets a benchmark for isospin-symmetry-breaking calculations and lends support for similarly-calculated, yet smaller, corrections that are currently applied to 0+ -> 0+ transitions for tests of the Standard Mode…
We present a test with which to evaluate the calculated isospin-symmetry-breaking corrections to superallowed 0+-to-0+ nuclear beta decay. The test is based on the corrected experimental Ft values being required to satisfy conservation of the vector current (CVC). When applied to six sets of published calculations, the test demonstrates quantitatively that only one set -- the one based on the shell model with Saxon-Woods radial wave functions -- provides satisfactory agreement with CVC. This test can easily be applied to any sets of calculated correction terms that are produced in future.
Recent experimental data have revealed large mirror energy differences (MED) between high-spin states in the mirror nuclei 67Se and 67As, the heaviest pair where MED have been determined so far. The MED are generally attributed to the isospin symmetry breaking caused by the Coulomb force and by the isospin nonconserving part of the nucleon-nucleon residual interaction. The different contributions of the various terms have been extensively studied in the fp shell. By employing large-scale shell model calculations, we show that the inclusion of the g9/2 orbit causes interference between the elec…
We show that a consequence of isospin symmetry, recently discovered in mirror conjugated one-nucleon decays, can be extended to mirror-conjugated $α$-particles decays, both virtual and real. For virtual $α$-decays of bound mirror pairs this symmetry manifests itself as a relation between the Asymptotic Normalization Coefficients (ANCs) of $α$-particle overlap integrals. This relation is given by a simple analytical formula which involves $α$-particle separation energies and charges of residual nuclei. For bound-unbound mirror pairs, the ANC of a bound nucleus is related to the $α$-width of the…
We study the formalism to include isospin-symmetry-breaking corrections when extracting the up-down Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix element from superallowed 0+ -> 0+ nuclear beta decay. We show that there are no first order isospin-symmetry-breaking corrections to the relevant nuclear matrix elements. We find corrections to the treatment of Towner and Hardy, and assess these using schematic models of increasing complexity.
Based on an exact formalism, we study the effects of isospin-symmetry-breaking interactions on superallowed 0+ -> 0+ transitions. We calculate the second-order renormalization of the Fermi matrix element due to radial contributions and show that radial excitations neglected in the treatment of Towner and Hardy are significant. These are estimated to decrease the isospin-symmetry-breaking corrections. Our results provide a correction term that can be included in existing approaches.
Isospin is an approximate symmetry in atomic nuclei, arising from the rather similar properties of protons and neutrons. Perhaps the clearest manifestation of isospin within nuclei is in the near-identical structure of excited states in mirror nuclei: nuclei with inverted numbers of protons and neutrons. Isospin symmetry, and therefore mirror-symmetry, is broken by electromagnetic interactions and the difference in the masses of the up and down quarks. A recent study by Hoff and collaborators presented evidence that the ground-state spin of $^{73}$Sr is different from that of its mirror, $^{73…
It is shown that isospin-breaking corrections to the pion-deuteron scattering length can be very large, because of the vanishing of the isospin-symmetric contribution to this scattering length at leading order in chiral perturbation theory. We further demonstrate that these corrections can explain the bulk of the discrepancy between the recent experimental data on pionic hydrogen and pionic deuterium. We also give the first determination of the electromagnetic low-energy constant f1.
We have studied the influences of isospin symmetry breaking of nucleon-nucleon interaction on the various properties of asymmetrical nuclear matter and $β$-stable matter. For asymmetrical nuclear matter, it is found that by including this isospin symmetry breaking, the changes of bulk properties increase by increasing both density and asymmetry parameter. However, these effects on the total energy and equation of state of $β$-stable matter are ignorable. For asymmetrical nuclear matter, the validity of the empirical parabolic law in the isospin symmetry breaking case is shown. It is observed t…
Background: Small asymmetry between neutrons and protons, caused by the differences in masses and charges of the up and down constituent quarks leads to the isospin symmetry breaking. The isospin non-conservation affects broad range of observables from superallowed Fermi weak interaction to isospin-forbidden electromagnetic rates. Its most profound and cleanest manifestation are systematic shifts in masses and excitation energies of mirror atomic nuclei. Purpose: Recently, we constructed the charge-dependent DFT that includes class II and III local interactions and demonstrated that the model …
We present a new procedure of isospin symmetry breaking of cooper-quartets in nuclear matter using Ginzburg-Landau theory, namely we couple the cooper-quartets to the pion-meson field and $SU(2)$ gluons. The paper also describes phenomena resulting from this approach.
We use the method of QCD sum rules in the presence of an external pion field to investigate isospin symmetry breakings in pion-nucleon couplings. Possible manifestations of such isospin symmetry breaking are examined in the context of low-energy nucleon-nucleon ($NN$) scattering. We discuss numerical results in relation to both the existing data and other theoretical predictions.
We study the leading isospin-breaking contributions to the two-nucleon two-pion exchange potential due to explicit Delta degrees of freedom in chiral effective field theory. In particular, we find important contributions due to the delta mass splittings to the charge symmetry breaking potential that act opposite to the effects induced by the nucleon mass splitting.
We present systematic study of isospin impurities ($α_{\rm ISB}$) to the wave functions of $T=1/2$, $11\leq A \leq 47$ mirror nuclei and the isospin-symmetry-breaking (ISB) corrections ($δ_{\rm ISB}^{\rm V}$) to their ground state vector $β$-decays using, for the first time, multi-reference charge-dependent density functional theory (MR-DFT) that includes strong-force-rooted class-III interaction adjusted to correct for the Nolen-Schiffer anomaly in nuclear masses. We demonstrate that, unexpectedly, the strong-force-rooted isovector force gives rise to a large systematic increase of $α_{\rm IS…
We investigate the effects of charge independence and charge symmetry breaking in neutron-rich matter. We consider neutron and proton properties in isospin-asymmetric matter at normal densities as well as the high-density neutron matter equation of state and the bulk properties of neutron stars. We find charge symmetry and charge independence breaking effects to be very small.
The quark-meson coupling model which we have developed previously is extended to incorporate the $δ$ meson. It is then used to study the Nolen-Schiffer anomaly and isospin symmetry breaking in nuclear matter. We find that, in combination with the {\it u-d\/} mass difference, the difference between quark scalar densities in protons and neutrons generates an effective neutron-proton mass difference of the right magnitude. Finally we find that isospin symmetry breaking in the quark condensates can be directly related to the $δ$ meson field.
An exactly solvable sp(4) algebraic approach extends beyond the traditional isospin conserving nuclear interaction to bring forward effects of isospin symmetry breaking and isospin mixing resulting from a two-body nuclear interaction that includes proton-neutron (pn) and like-particle isovector pairing correlations plus significant isoscalar pn interactions. The model yields an estimate for the extent to which isobaric analog 0+ states in light and medium mass nuclei may mix with one another and reveals possible, but still extremely weak, non-analog beta-decay transitions.
The $Λ$ separation energies in the mirror hypernuclei ${_Λ^4}{\rm H}-{_Λ^4}{\rm He}$ exhibit large charge symmetry breaking (CSB). Analyzing this CSB within pionless effective field theory while using partially conserved baryon-baryon SU(3) flavor symmetry, we deduce a $Λ-Σ^0$ induced in-medium admixture amplitude ${\cal A}_{I=1}\approx 1.5\%$ in the dominantly isospin $I=0$ $Λ$ hyperon. Our results confirm the free-space value ${\cal A}^{(0)}_{I=1}$ inferred directly within the SU(3) baryon octet by Dalitz and von-Hippel in 1964 and reaffirmed in a recent QCD+QED lattice calculation. Furtherm…
We analyze isospin breaking through quark mass differences and virtual photons in the pion-nucleon scattering lengths in all physical channels in the framework of covariant baryon chiral perturbation theory.
We investigate isospin-symmetry breaking effects in the sd-shell region with large-scale shell-model calculations, aiming to understand the recent anomalies observed in superallowed Fermi beta-decay. We begin with calculations of Coulomb displacement energies (CDE's) and triplet displacement energies (TDE's) by adding the T=1,J=0 isospin nonconserving (INC) interaction into the usual isospin-invariant Hamiltonian. It is found that CDE's and TDE's can be systematically described with high accuracy. A total number of 122 one- and two-proton separation energies are predicted accordingly, and loca…
A brief review of the isospin symmetry breaking in hadrons and nuclei is given with emphasis on the $u-d$ quark mass difference. The off-shell $ρ^0-ω$ mixing is studied as a typical example of the symmetry breaking, and its relevance to the nuclear force and nuclei is discussed.
We study the isospin asymmetry in the isoscalar (IS) excitations in the mirror nuclei $^{14}$O and $^{14}$C by using the Hartree-Fock(HF)+random phase approximation (RPA) linear response function theory with a Skyrme interaction to take into account the continuum effect properly. The asymmetry in the IS monopole, dipole responses is pointed out in the continuum near the particle threshold with respect to the excitation energy and the sum rule strength. On the other hand, no clear sign of the asymmetry is found in the giant resonance (GR) region. In the quadrupole case, the calculated strengths…
For nuclei with N = Z, the isospin degree of freedom is important and, for deformed systems, rotational bands of different isospin may be expected at low excitation energies. We have investigated, in a simple model space, the influence of the isospin-breaking Coulomb interaction on the degree of chaoticity of these rotational bands. The statistical measures used rely on an analysis of level-spacing distributions, which are extremely difficult to measure experimentally. We show, however, that the overlap intergrals between states of similar frequency reflect well the degree of chaoticity. This …
We lay out a novel formalism to connect the isospin-symmetry breaking correction to the rates of superallowed nuclear beta decays, $δ_\text{C}$, to the isospin-breaking sensitive combinations of electroweak nuclear radii that can be accessed experimentally. We individuate transitions in the superallowed decay chart where a measurement of the neutron skin of a stable daughter even at a moderate precision could already help discriminating between models used to compute $δ_\text{C}$. We review the existing experimental situation and make connection to the existing and future experimental programs…
The superallowed beta-decay rates that provide stringent constraints on physics beyond the Standard Model of particle physics are affected by nuclear structure effects through isospin-breaking corrections. The self-consistent isospin- and angular-momentum-projected nuclear density functional theory is used for the first time to compute those corrections for a number of Fermi transitions in nuclei from A=10 to A=74. The resulting leading element of the CKM matrix, |V_{ud}|= 0.97447(23), agrees well with the recent result by Towner and Hardy [Phys. Rev. C {\bf 77}, 025501 (2008)].
Effects of the isospin-symmetry breaking (ISB) beyond mean-field Coulomb terms are systematically studied in nuclear masses near the $N=Z$ line. The Coulomb exchange contributions are calculated exactly. We use extended Skyrme energy density functionals (EDFs) with proton-neutron-mixed densities, to which we add new terms breaking the isospin symmetry. Two parameters associated with the new terms are determined by fitting mirror and triplet displacement energies (MDEs and TDEs) of isospin multiplets. The new EDFs reproduce MDEs for the $T=\frac12$ doublets and $T=1$ triplets, and TDEs for the …
We present a study of the 1+1 flavor system of strongly interacting matter in terms of the Polyakov$-$Nambu$-$Jona-Lasinio model. We find that though the small isospin symmetry breaking brought in through unequal light quark masses is too small to affect the thermodynamics of the system in general, it may have significant effect in baryon-isospin correlations and have a measurable impact in heavy-ion collision experiments.
Recently, we have applied for the first time the angular momentum and isospin projected nuclear density functional theory to calculate the isospin-symmetry breaking (ISB) corrections to the superallowed beta-decay. With the calculated set of the ISB corrections we found |V_{ud}|=0.97447(23) for the leading element of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix. This is in nice agreement with both the recent result of Towner and Hardy [Phys. Rev. {\bf C77}, 025501 (2008)] and the central value deduced from the neutron decay. In this work we extend our calculations of the ISB corrections covering all s…
Extraction of the nucleon's strange form factors from experimental data requires a quantitative understanding of the unavoidable contamination from isospin violation. A number of authors have addressed this issue during the past decade, and their work is reviewed here. The predictions from early models are largely consistent with recent results that rely as much as possible on input from QCD symmetries and related experimental data. The resulting bounds on isospin violation are sufficiently precise to be of value to on-going experimental and theoretical studies of the nucleon's strange form fa…
A violation of mirror symmetry in the $η\toπ^+π^-π^0$ Dalitz plot has long been recognized as a signal of C and CP violation. Here we show how the isospin of the underlying C- and CP-violating structures can be reconstructed from their kinematic representation in the Dalitz plot. Our analysis of the most recent experimental data reveals, for the first time, that the C- and CP-violating amplitude with total isospin $I=2$ is much more severely suppressed than that with total isospin $I=0$.
The conventional Skyrme interaction is generalized by adding zero-range charge-symmetry-breaking and charge-independence-breaking terms, and the corresponding energy density functional is derived. It is shown that the extended model accounts for experimental values of mirror and triplet displacement energies (MDEs and TDEs) in sd-shell isospin triplets with, on average, about 100~keV precision using only two additional adjustable coupling constants. Moreover, the model is able to reproduce, for the first time, the A=4n versus A=4n+2 staggering of the TDEs.
We analyze isospin breaking through quark mass differences and virtual photons in the pion-nucleon scattering lengths in all physical channels in the framework of covariant baryon chiral perturbation theory. The so-called triangle relation is found to be violated by about 1.5 %. We encounter a substantial isospin-breaking correction to neutral-pion-nucleon scattering beyond Weinberg's prediction due to a cusp effect. Finally, the application to hadronic atoms is briefly discussed.
Although SU(2) isospin symmetry is generally assumed in the basic theory of the strong interaction, a number of significant violations have been observed in scattering and bound states of nucleons. Many of these violations can be attributed to the electromagnetic interaction but the question of how much of the violation is due to it remains open. A schematic model based on clustering of quarks in the interior of the confinement region of the two-nucleon system is introduced and evaluated. In this model the Coulomb interaction is the source of all isospin breaking. It draws on a picture of the …
In recent years, high-accuracy data for pionic hydrogen and deuterium have become the primary source of information on the pion-nucleon scattering lengths. Matching the experimental precision requires, in particular, the study of isospin-breaking corrections both in pion-nucleon and pion-deuteron scattering. We review the mechanisms that lead to the cancellation of potentially enhanced virtual-photon corrections in the pion-deuteron system, and discuss the subtleties regarding the definition of the pion-nucleon scattering lengths in the presence of electromagnetic interactions by comparing to …
The small mass difference $m_n-m_p=1.3 MeV$ between the proton and neutron leads to an excess of $n=π^- p$ over $p=π^+ n$ fluctuations which can be calculated by using a light-cone meson-baryon fluctuation model of intrinsic quark-antiquark pairs of the nucleon sea. The Gottfried sum rule violation may partially be explained by isospin symmetry breaking between the proton and neutron and the same effect introduces correction terms to the anomalous magnetic moments and the anomalous weak magnetic moments of the proton and neutron. We also evaluated the strange magnetic moment of the nucleon fro…
Compared with lattice QCD, isospin breaking of heavy-meson decay constants from QCD sum rules agrees for $D$ mesons but disagrees (by a factor of four) for $B$ mesons.
Modern nucleon-nucleon (NN) potentials, which accurately fit the nucleon-nucleon scattering phase shifts, contain terms which break isospin symmetry. The effects of these symmetry violating terms on the bulk properties of nuclear matter are investigated. The predictions of the charge symmetry breaking (CSB) terms are compared with the Nolen-Schiffer (NS) anomaly regarding the energies of neighboring mirror nuclei. We find that, for a quantitative explanation of the NS anomaly, it is crucial to include CSB in partial waves with $L>0$ (besides $^1S_0$) as derived from a microscopic model for CSB…
The model for charge symmetry breaking in the reaction np --> dpi^0 applied earlier around the Delta region is used to calculate the integrated forward-backward asymmetry of the cross section close to threshold. The mixing of the pi and eta mesons appears as strongly dominant at these energies. This contrasts elastic np scattering experiments, where the np mass difference in OPE dominates, or np --> dπ^0 closer to the Delta region.
The strange sea quarks distributions of nucleons obtained by two global analyses based on available structure function data of muon and neutrino deep inelastic scatterings are different from the strange sea quark distribution measured by the CCFR Collaboration from dimuon events in neutrino scattering. We discuss possible contributions to this discrepancy from the nuclear shadowing in the deuteron and from the isospin symmetry breaking in the sea between the neutron and the proton.
QCD sum rules for decay constants of heavy mesons with $u$ or $d$ quark yield for $B$ mesons much less isospin breaking than lattice QCD but good agreement for $D$ mesons.
The narrow charmonium state near 3872 MeV reported by the Belle collaboration and confirmedby CDF lies almost exactly at the neutral D anti-D* threshold. As was predicted many years ago it can be a deuteronlike meson-meson state called a deuson. If so, it should be an axial, or possibily a pseudoscalar state with C=0, and isospin predominantly 0. Large isospin breaking is expected because of the isospin mass splitting between the neutral and charged D (D*) mesons. Because of this large isospin breaking the decay X(3872) to J/psi rho would be allowed, while J/psi sigma would be forbidden by C-p…
The anomaly in Coulomb energy differences (CED) between the isospin T=1 states in the odd-odd N=Z nucleus 70Br and the analogue states in its even-even partner 70Se has remained a puzzle. This is a direct manifestation of isospin-symmetry breaking in effective nuclear interactions. Here, we perform large-scale shell-model calculations for nuclei with A=66-78 using the new filter diagonalization method based on the Sakurai-Sugiura algorithm. The calculations reproduce well the experimental CED. The observed negative CED for A=70 are accounted for by the cross-shell neutron excitations from the …
We present the self-consistent, non-perturbative analysis of isospin mixing using the nuclear density functional approach and the rediagonalization of the Coulomb interaction in the good-isospin basis. The largest isospin-breaking effects are predicted for N = Z nuclei and they quickly fall with the neutron excess. The unphysical isospin violation on the mean-field level, caused by the neutron excess, is eliminated by the proposed method. We find a significant dependence of the magnitude of isospin breaking on the parametrization of the nuclear interaction term. A rough correlation has been fo…
The isospin breaking in the nucleon isovector axial charge, $g_A^3$, are calculated within the external field QCD sum-rule approach. The isospin violations arising from the difference in up and down current quark masses and in up and down quark condensates are included; electromagnetic effects are not considered. We find $δg^3_A/g^3_A \approx (0.5-1.0)\times 10^{-2}$, where $δg^3_A = (g^3_A)_p + (g^3_A)_n$ and $ g^3_A = [(g^3_A)_p - (g^3_A)_n]/2$. Using the Goldberger-Treiman relation, we also obtain an estimate of the isospin breaking in the pion-nucleon coupling constant, $(g_{ppπ_0}-g_{nnπ_…
We discuss the isospin symmetry breaking (ISB) of the valence- and sea-quark distributions between the proton and the neutron in the framework of the chiral quark model. We assume that isospin symmetry breaking is the result of mass differences between isospin multiplets and then analyze the effects of isospin symmetry breaking on the Gottfried sum rule and the NuTeV anomaly. We show that, although both flavor asymmetry in the nucleon sea and the ISB between the proton and the neutron can lead to the violation of the Gottfried sum rule, the main contribution is from the flavor asymmetry in the…
Motivated by our earlier findings of sensitive quark-flavor dependence of QCD topological susceptibility on products of current quark masses and corresponding condensates, we allow the breaking of isospin symmetry. For the purpose of future investigations of U_A(1) symmetry breaking and restoration at T > 0, we perform (at T = 0) refitting of the quark-mass parameters of a phenomenologically successful effective model of low-energy QCD. It belongs to the class of separable-interaction models within the Dyson-Schwinger approach to the quark-antiquark substructure of mesons.
