Some emerging concepts of nuclear structure are overviewed. (1) Background: the many-body quantum structure of atomic nucleus, a complex system comprising protons and neutrons (called nucleons collectively), has been studied largely based on the idea of the quantum liquid (a la Landau), where nucleons are quasiparticles moving in a (mean) potential well, with weak "residual" interactions between nucleons. The potential is rigid in general, although it can be anisotropic. While this view was a good starting point, it is time to look into kaleidoscopic aspects of the nuclear structure brought in by underlying dynamics and nuclear forces. (2) Methods: exotic features as well as classical issues are investigated from fresh viewpoints based on the shell model and nucleon-nucleon interactions. The 70-year progress of the shell-model approach, including effective nucleon-nucleon interactions, enables us to do this. (3) Results: we go beyond the picture of the solid potential well by activating the monopole interactions of the nuclear forces. This produces notable consequences in key features such as the shell/magic structure, the shape deformation, the dripline, etc. These consequences are understood with emerging concepts such as shell evolution (incl. type-II), T-plot, self-organization (for collective bands), triaxial-shape dominance, new dripline mechanism, etc. The resulting predictions and analyses agree with experiment. (4) Conclusion: atomic nuclei are surprisingly richer objects than initially thought.
Inelastic neutron scattering was used to study the low-lying nuclear structure of $^{132}$Xe. A comprehensive level scheme is presented, as well as new level lifetimes, multipole mixing ratios, branching ratios, and transition probabilities. Comparisons of these data as well as previously measured $E2$ strengths and $g$ factors are made with new shell-model calculations for $^{132,134,136}$Xe to explore the emergence of collectivity in the Xe isotopes with $N$ < 82 near the closed shell.
Large-scale shell model calculations including two major shells are carried out, and the ingredients of nuclear matrix element for two-neutrino double beta decay are investigated. Based on the comparison between the shell model calculations accounting only for one major shell ($pf$-shell) and those for two major shells ($sdpf$-shell), the effect due to the excitation across the two major shells is quantitatively evaluated.
Constraining excitation energy at which nuclear shell effect washes out has important implications on the production of super heavy elements and many other fields of nuclear physics research. We report the fission fragment mass distribution in alpha induced reaction on an actinide target for wide excitation range in close energy interval and show direct evidence that nuclear shell effect washes out at excitation energy ~40 MeV. Calculation shows that second peak of the fission barrier also vanishes around similar excitation energy.
We present developments and applications for the diagonalization of shell-model hamiltonians in a discrete non-orthogonal basis (DNO-SM). The method, and its actual numerical implementation CARINA, based on mean-field and beyond-mean field techniques has already been applied in previous studies and is focused on basis states selection optimization. The method is benchmarked against a full set of $sd$ shell exact diagonalizations, and is applied for the first time to the heavy deformed $^{254}$No nucleus.
Non-local orbital-free density functional theory incorporating nuclear shell effects
Fuzhou University（福州大学）；Università degli Studi di Milano（米兰大学）；INFN, Sezione di Milano（意大利国家核物理研究所米兰分部）；Kyoto University（京都大学）；RIKEN Nishina Center for Accelerator-based Science, RIKEN（理化学研究所西村加速器科学中心）；Peking University（北京大学）
We evaluate the allowed $β^-$-decay properties of nuclei with $Z = 8 - 15$ systematically under the framework of the nuclear shell model with the use of the valence space Hamiltonians derived from modern $ab~intio$ methods, such as in-medium similarity renormalization group and coupled-cluster theory. For comparison we also show results obtained with fitted interaction derived from the chiral effective field theory and phenomenological USDB interaction. We have performed calculations for O $\rightarrow$ F, F $\rightarrow$ Ne, Ne $\rightarrow$ Na, Na $\rightarrow$ Mg, Mg $\rightarrow$ Al, Al $\…
Novel simple properties of the monopole component of the effective nucleon-nucleon interaction are presented, leading to the so-called monopole-based universal interaction. Shell structures are shown to change as functions of $N$ and $Z$ consistently with experiments. Some key cases of this shell evolution are discussed, clarifying the effects of central and tensor forces. The validity of the present tensor force is examined in terms of the low-momentum interaction V$_{low k}$ and the Q$_{box}$ formalism.
Within the framework of the Brueckner theory, the off-shell behaviors of the mass operator $M(k,ω)=V(k,ω)+iW(k,ω)$, i.e., its dependence upon the momentum $k$ and upon the nucleon frequency $ω$, are investigated by including nuclear three-body force (TBF). The first two terms of the hole-line expansion of the mass operator are taken into account. The TBF effects on their off-shell properties are discussed. A comparison is made between the on-shell and off-shell values of $M_{1}$. The nucleon spectral function and nucleon momentum distribution are also calculated, and the calculation shows that…
One of the common methods used to investigate the nuclear structures of atomic nuclei is the nuclear shell model. Similar to the placement of atomic electrons into orbits, in the nuclear shell model, protons and neutrons are thought to fill the orbits within the nucleus, following the principle of Pauli's exclusion. These orbits are grouped together to form shells, which are said to be closed if all possible places in a shell are full. Atomic nuclei with closed shells are very stable and valence nucleons that are more than these nuclei are included in the nuclear shell model calculations. In t…
We have performed a systematic study of the log$ft$ values, shape factors and electron spectra for the second-forbidden nonunique $β^-$ decays of $^{24}$Na$(4^+) \rightarrow ^{24}$Mg$(2^+)$ and $^{36}$Cl$(2^+) \rightarrow ^{36}$Ar$(0^+)$ transitions under the framework of the nuclear shell model. We have performed the shell model calculations in the $sd$ model space, using more recent microscopic effective interactions such as Daejeon16, chiral N3LO, and JISP16. These interactions are derived from the no-core shell model wave functions using Okubo-Lee-Suzuki transformation.For comparison, we h…
During the last 30 years, and more specifically during the last 10 years, many experiments have been carried out worldwide using different techniques to study the shell evolution of nuclei far from stability. What seemed not conceivable some decades ago became rather common: all known magic numbers that are present in the valley of stability disappear far from stability and are replaced by new ones at the drip line. By gathering selected experimental results, beautifully consistent pictures emerge, that very likely take root in the properties of the nuclear forces.The present manuscript descri…
The evolution of the N=28 shell closure is investigated far from stability. Using the latest results obtained from various experimental techniques, we discuss the main properties of the N=28 isotones, as well as those of the N=27 and N=29 isotones. Experimental results are confronted to various theoretical predictions. These studies pinpoint the effects of several terms of the nucleon-nucleon interaction, such as the central, the spin-orbit, the tensor and the three-body force components, to account for the modification of the N=28 shell gap and spin-orbit splittings. Analogies between the evo…
We study the two-neutrino double electron capture on $^{124}$Xe based on an effective theory (ET) and large-scale shell model calculations, two modern nuclear structure approaches that have been tested against Gamow-Teller and double-beta decay data. In the ET, the low-energy constants are fit to electron capture and $β^{-}$ transitions around xenon. For the nuclear shell model, we use an interaction in a large configuration space that reproduces the spectroscopy of nuclei in this mass region. For the dominant transition to the $^{124}$Te ground state, we find half-lives $T^{2ν{\rm ECEC}}_{1/2…
We describe the "islands of inversion" that occur when approaching the neutron drip line around the magic numbers N=20, N=28 and N=40 in the framework of the Interacting Shell Model in very large valence spaces. We explain these configuration inversions (and the associated shape transitions) as the result of the competition between the spherical mean field (monopole) which favors magicity and the correlations (multipole) which favor deformed intruder states. We also show that the N=20 and N=28 islands are in reallity a single one, which for the Magnesium isotopes is limited by N=18 and N=32.
Nuclei exhibit both single-particle and collective degrees of freedom, with the latter often subdivided into vibrational and rotational motions. Experimentally identifying the relative roles of these collective modes is extremely challenging, particularly in the face of possible shape coexistence. Model-independent, invariant quantities describing the deformation of a nucleus in the intrinsic frame have long been known but their determination potentially requires a large quantity of experimental data to achieve convergence. Through comparison with the nuclear shell model, the question of conve…
In the present work, we have done a systematic shell model study of $N=82$ and $N=126$ isotones. For the $N=82$ isotones, we have performed calculations using SN100PN interaction, while for $N=126$ isotones, we have used KHPE interaction. Similarities between these two isotonic chains have been reported, using the strong resemblance between the high-$j$ orbitals. Apart from the nuclear spectroscopic properties, we have also explained different isomeric states in these two regions. In the $N$ =82 region, we have mainly discussed the properties of the $6^+$ and $17/2^+$ isomers, while in the $N=…
The concept of single-nucleon shells constitutes a basic pillar of our understanding of nuclear structure. Effective single-particle energies (ESPEs) introduced by French and Baranger represent the most appropriate tool to relate many-body observables to a single-nucleon shell structure. As briefly discussed in [T. Duguet, G. Hagen, Phys. Rev. C {\bf 85}, 034330 (2012)], the dependence of ESPEs on one-nucleon transfer probability matrices makes them purely theoretical quantities that "run" with the non-observable resolution scale $λ$ employed in the calculation. Given that ESPEs provide a way …
In an old paper [ 1] B.H. Flowers discussed calculations for odd A nuclei in the g9/2 shell. He finds when he varies the parameters of a certain interaction that the lowest energy state is always a seniority v=1 state with angular momentum J=9/2+. However experiments show about half the states have J=9/2+ lower and the other ones have J=7/2+ lower. More recently we considered selected nuclei between Z=40 and Z=50. For lower odd N Zr isotopes we find J=7/2+ comes below J=9/2+ while for odd Z isotones near Z=50 the opposite is true i.e. J=9/2+ comes below J= 7/2+.We justify using different inter…
The Self-similar-structure shell model (SSM) comes from the evolution of the conventional shell model (SM) and keeps the energy level of SM single particle harmonic oscillation motion. In SM, single particle motion is the positive harmonic oscillation and in SSM, the single particle motion is the negative harmonic oscillation. In this paper a nuclear evolution equation (NEE) is proposed. NEE describes the nuclear evolution process from gas state to liquid state and reveals the relations among SM, SSM and liquid drop model (DM). Based upon SSM and NEE theory, we propose the solution to long-sta…
Single particle spin-orbit interaction energy problem in nuclear shell structure is solved through negative harmonic oscillator in the self-similar-structure shell model (SSM) [4] and considering quarks' contributions on single particle spin and orbit momentum. The paper demonstrates that single particle motion in normal nuclei is described better by SSM negative harmonic oscillator than conventional shell model positive harmonic oscillator[1][2][3]. The proposed theoretical formula for spin orbit interaction energy agrees well to experiment measurements.
The uncertainty quantifications of theoretical results are of great importance to make meaningful comparisons of those results with experimental data and to make predictions in experimentally unknown regions. By quantifying uncertainties, one can make more solid statements about, e.g., origins of discrepancy in some quantities between theory and experiment. We propose a novel method for uncertainty quantification for the effective interactions of nuclear shell-model calculations as an example. The effective interaction is specified by a set of parameters, and its probability distribution in th…
Bayesian neural network (BNN) approach is employed to improve the nuclear mass predictions of various models. It is found that the noise error in the likelihood function plays an important role in the predictive performance of the BNN approach. By including a distribution for the noise error, an appropriate value can be found automatically in the sampling process, which optimizes the nuclear mass predictions. Furthermore, two quantities related to nuclear pairing and shell effects are added to the input layer in addition to the proton and mass numbers. As a result, the theoretical accuracies a…
Neutrinoless double beta decay searches are currently among the major foci of experimental physics. The observation of such a decay will have important implications in our understanding of the intrinsic nature of neutrinos and shed light on the limitations of the Standard Model. The rate of this process depends on both the unknown neutrino effective mass and the nuclear matrix element associated with the given neutrinoless double-beta decay transition. The latter can only be provided by theoretical calculations, hence the need of accurate theoretical predictions of the nuclear matrix element f…
We introduce a novel method to obtain level densities in large-scale shell-model calculations. Our method is a stochastic estimation of eigenvalue count based on a shifted Krylov-subspace method, which enables us to obtain level densities of huge Hamiltonian matrices. This framework leads to a successful description of both low-lying spectroscopy and the experimentally observed equilibration of $J^π=2^+$ and $2^-$ states in $^{58}$Ni in a unified manner.
Semiclassical periodic-orbit theory (POT) is applied to the physics of nuclear structures, with the use of a realistic nuclear mean-field model given by the radial power-law potential. Evolution of deformed shell structures, which are responsible for various nuclear deformations, are clearly understood from the contribution of short classical periodic orbits (POs). Bifurcations of short POs, which imply underlying local dynamical symmetry, play significant role there. The effect of the spin degree of freedom is also investigated in relevance to the pseudospin symmetry in spherical nuclei and t…
A shell-model study of proton-neutron pairing in f - p shell nuclei using a parametrized hamiltonian that includes deformation and spin-orbit effects as well as isoscalar and isovector pairing is reported. By working in a shell-model framework we are able to assess the role of the various modes of proton-neutron pairing in the presence of nuclear deformation without violating symmetries. Results are presented for $^{44}$Ti, $^{46}$Ti and $^{48}$Cr.
There have been many empirical evindences which show that the single-particle picture holds to a good approximation in atomic nuclei. In this picture, protons and neutrons move independently inside a mean-field potential generated by an interaction among the nucleons. This leads to the concept of nuclear shells, similar to the electronic shells in atoms. In particular, the magic numbers due to closures of the nucleonic shells, corresponding to noble gases in elements, have been known to play an important role in nuclear physics. Here we propose a periodic table for atomic nuclei, in which the …
The nuclear shell model is a benchmark for the description of the structure of atomic nuclei. The magic numbers associated with closed shells have long been assumed to be valid across the whole nuclear chart. Investigations in recent years of nuclei far away from nuclear stability at facilities for radioactive ion beams have revealed that the magic numbers may change locally in those exotic nuclei leading to the disappearance of classic shell gaps and the appearance of new magic numbers. These changes in shell structure also have important implications for the synthesis of heavy elements in st…
We introduce a mean field model based on realistic 2-body baryon interactions and calculate spectra of a set of p-shell and sd-shell Λ hypernuclei - 13ΛC, 17ΛO, 21ΛNe, 29ΛSi and 41ΛCa. The hypernuclear spectra are compared with the results of a relativistic mean field (RMF) model and available experimental data. The sensitivity of Λ single-particle energies to the nuclear core structure is explored. Special attention is paid to the effect of spin-orbit ΛN interaction on the energy splitting of the Λ single particle levels 0p3/2 and 0p1/2. In particular, we analyze the contribution of the symme…
In this paper we investigate regular patterns of matrix elements of the nuclear shell model Hamiltonian $H$, by sorting the diagonal matrix elements from the smaller to larger values. By using simple plots of non-zero matrix elements and lowest eigenvalues of artificially constructed "sub-matrices" $h$ of $H$, we propose a new and simple formula which predicts the lowest eigenvalue with remarkable precisions.
A new code for nuclear shell-model calculations, "KSHELL", is developed. It aims at carrying out both massively parallel computation and single-node computation in the same manner. We solve the Schrödinger's equation in the $M$-scheme shell-model model space, utilizing Thick-Restart Lanczos method. During the Lanczos iteration, the whole Hamiltonian matrix elements are generated "on-the-fly" in every matrix-vector multiplication. The vectors of the Lanczos method are distributed and stored on memory of each parallel node. We report that the newly developed code has high parallel efficiency on …
We present a short overview of our recent theoretical developments aiming at the description of exotic nuclear phenomena to be reached and studied at the next-generation radioactive beam facilities. Applications to nuclear shell structure and response of nuclei at the limits of their existence, with a special focus on the physics cases of astrophysical importance, are discussed.
Accurate knowledge of the nuclear level density is important both from a theoretical viewpoint as a powerful instrument for studying nuclear structure and for numerous applications. For example, astrophysical reactions responsible for the nucleosynthesis in the universe can be understood only if we know the nuclear level density. We use the configuration-interaction nuclear shell model to predict nuclear level density for all nuclei in the $sd$-shell, both total and for individual spins (only with positive parity). To avoid the diagonalization in large model spaces we use the moments method ba…
The shell model Monte Carlo (SMMC) approach allows for the microscopic calculation of statistical and collective properties of heavy nuclei using the framework of the configuration-interaction shell model in very large model spaces. We present recent applications of the SMMC method to the calculation of state densities and their collective enhancement factors in rare-earth nuclei.
We devise a framework based on the generalized contact formalism that combines the nuclear shell model and quantum Monte Carlo methods and compute the neutrinoless double-beta decay of experimentally relevant nuclei, including $^{76}$Ge, $^{130}$Te, and $^{136}$Xe. In light nuclei, we validate our nuclear matrix element calculations by comparing against accurate variational Monte Carlo results. Due to additional correlations captured by quantum Monte Carlo and introduced within the generalized contact formalism, in heavier systems, we obtain long-range nuclear matrix elements that are about 30…
Applications of configuration mixing methods for nuclei near the proton and neutron drip lines are discussed. A short review of magic numbers is presented. Prospects for advances in the regions of four new "outposts" are highlighted: $^{28}$O, $^{42}$Si, $^{60}$Ca and $^{78}$Ni. Topics include: shell gaps, single-particle properties, islands-of-inversion, collectivity, neutron decay, neutron halos, two-proton decay, effective charge, and quenching in knockout reactions.
