Nuclear quantum Monte Carlo: Expanding into the continuum

I discuss calculations of nuclear properties using the variational Monte-Carlo (VMC) and Green’s function Monte-Carlo (GFMC) methods in combination with realistic two- and three-nucleon interactions. Work to date has emphasized energies of bound and narrow states, and the results agree well with measured masses and energies. We are now directing more effort toward other nuclear properties, including weak decay rates and nuclear charge radii. The main new direction is the computation of low-energy scattering and reaction properties. We have incorporated R-matrix-like boundary conditions into GFMC calculations, and our first calculation of this kind has yielded phase shifts for neutron scattering on ⁴He up to a few MeV. We find strong dependence of the results on the three-nucleon interaction used.     

Cross Sections for Neutron–Deuteron Elastic Scattering in the Energy Range 135–250 MeV

We report new measurements of the neutron–deuteron elastic scattering cross section at energies from 135 to 250 MeV and center-of-mass angles from 80^? to 130^?. Cross sections for neutron-proton elastic scattering were also measured with the same experimental setup for normalization purposes. Our nd cross section results are compared with predictions based on Faddeev calculations including three-nucleon forces, and with cross sections measured with charged particle and neutron beams at comparable energies.     

The three-nucleon system near the N-d threshold

The three-nucleon system is studied at energies a few hundred keV above the N-d threshold. Measurements of the tensor analyzing powers T₂₀ and T₂₁ for p-d elastic scattering at E_c.m. = 432 keV are presented together with the corresponding theoretical predictions. The calculations are extended to very low energies since they are useful for extracting the p-d scattering lengths from the experimental data. The interaction considered here is the Argonne V18 potential plus the Urbana three-nucleon potential. The calculation of the asymptotic D- to S-state ratio for ³H and ³He, for which recent experimental results are available, is also presented.     

Neutron–Triton Elastic Scattering

The Kohn variational principle and the hyperspherical harmonics technique are applied to study the n ? ³H elastic scattering at low energies. In this contribution the first results obtained using a non-local realistic interaction derived from the chiral perturbation theory are reported. They are found to be in good agreement with those obtained solving the Faddeev–Yakubovsky equations. The calculated total and differential cross sections are compared with the available experimental data. The effect of including a three-nucleon interaction is also discussed.     

The quasi-free 3He(e,e′p) reaction

The proton spectral function has experimentally been determined with the ³He(e, e′p) reaction for missing energies, 0<E_m<70MeV, and recoil momenta, 0<P_B<310 MeV/c. Experimental results are obtained for both the two-body, ³He(e, e′p)²H, and three-body breakup processes. Proton momentum density distributions, obtained in a PWIA analysis, are compared with theoretical calculations: Faddeev solutions with the RSC and Paris potentials, and variational calculations with various potentials, including those with a three-nucleon interaction term. Energy-weighted sum rule results are presented and compared with theoretical predictions. The coincidence cross sections are also compared with calculations which include the effects of final state interactions and meson exchange currents. Consistency of the results with PWIA is investigated in the framework of the Chew-Low extrapolation procedure.     

The complex Kohn variational method applied to N-d scattering

The three-nucleon ground state and the N-d scattering states are obtained using variational principles. The wave function of the system is decomposed into angular-spin-isospin channels and the corresponding two dimensional spatial amplitudes are expanded in a correlated polynomial basis. For the scattering states, the complex form of the Kohn variational principle is used to determine the S-matrix. Special attention is given to the convergence pattern of the phase-shift and mixing parameters. The calculations have been performed using realistic local NN potentials and three-nucleon forces. Important features of the method are anomaly-free solutions and the low dimensionality of the matrices involved allowing for the inclusion of a large number of states. Very precise and stable numerical results have been obtained.     

Three-nucleon interaction in 3-, 4- and ∞-body systems

We report results of variational calculations of ³H, ³He, ⁴He and nuclear matter with the Urbana v₁₄ two-nucleon interaction and realistic models of the three-nucleon interaction (TNI). These include the Tucson and isobar intermediate-state models of the two-pion exchange TNI. The latter is also studied with an intermediate-range three-nucleon repulsion. In general, realistic TNI helps to bring the theory closer to experiment by giving extra binding energy to the A = 3 and 4 nuclei and providing extra saturation to the nuclear matter binding energy. The Coulomb energy of ³He and the rms radii of A = 3, 4 nuclei are also well described. However, some problems remain unresolved. There is a slight overbinding of ⁴He, an underbinding of nuclear matter, and the charge form factors of ³He and ⁴He, calculated with impulse approximation, deviate from the experimental at q²>5 fm^?2.     

Pion-nucleus inelastic scattering and charge exchange

Using a separable fixed scatterer pion-nucleon interaction and the distorted wave impulse approximation we have made predictions for medium energy pion inelastic scattering from ¹⁶O and (π^?, π⁰) charge exchange from ⁴⁸Ca. An optical potential based on the pion-nucleon interaction adopted in this work has been shown previously to provide good fits to pion-nucleus elastic scattering. After a discussion of the basic formulae, we present results of calculations for pion inelastic scattering from ¹⁶O for initial pion lab kinetic energies of 70 and 180 MeV. Because of the strong energy dependence of the pion-nucleon interaction there are qualitative differences between the predictions for the nuclear response in the momentum transfer, energy loss plane for T_π^lab = 70 and 180 MeV. At these energies, states not prominently excited by other probes are predicted to be observable. In particular, J^π = 3^? and 4^?, T = 0 states appear prominently in the excitation spectrum region at large momentum transfer. A comparison of π^? and π⁺ scattering showing the effects of the Coulomb interaction is presented. The predictions for pion single-charge exchange on ⁴⁸Ca indicate that this interaction would be useful for studying the location of the T_> states arising from the splitting of the giant dipole resonance in T ≠ 0 nuclei.     

Momentum distributions in A = 3 and 4 nuclei

We develop a general Monte Carlo method to study momentum distributions of nucleons and nucleon clusters in nuclei. The method is used to calculate the momentum distributions of protons and neutrons in A = 3 and 4, d + p amplitudes in ³He, and t + p and d + d amplitudes in ⁴He nuclei, with improved variational wave functions. The nucleon and d + p momentum distributions in ³He are also calculated from a five-channel Faddeev wave function. The calculations are based on realistic hamiltonians that include the three-nucleon interaction, and give reasonable binding energies and densities for light nuclei and nuclear matter. The calculated proton and d + p momentum distributions in ³He at low k are in good agreement with the results obtained by the Saclay analysis of the electron scattering data in the plane-wave impulse approximation; however, at higher values of k, the calculated momentum distributions are larger. The calculated values of the asymptotic D- to S-wave ratio of the d+n and d+d amplitudes are also in agreement with the values obtained from (d, t) and (d, α) reactions. The number of deuterons is found to be 1.38 and ∼2.4 in A = 3 and 4 nuclei, while the number of tritons in ⁴He is ∼1.6. This large value of the triton number reflects the large contribution (more than 90% at small k) of the t+p state to the total proton momentum distribution in ⁴He.     

Calculations of Three-Nucleon Reactions

Faddeev calculations using the chiral three-nucleon force in next-to-next-to-next-to-leading-order show that this force is too weak to provide an explanation for the low-energy A _y puzzle. The large discrepancy between data and theory for the neutron–neutron quasi-free-scattering cross section in low energy neutron–deuteron breakup requires a modification of the ${^{1}S_0}$ neutron–neutron force. We discuss the consequences that a bound ${^{1}S_0}$ state of two neutrons has on neutron–deuteron scattering observables. At higher energies we compare the solutions of the non-relativistic three-nucleon Faddeev equations with three-nucleon force included to the solutions of its Poincaré invariant version.     

Discrepancy between three-nucleon calculations and neutron-deuteron elastic analyzing power data at 8.5 MeV

The analyzing power A_y(θ) in neutron-deuteron elastic scattering was measured at Eⁿ = 8.5 MeV. Comparison of the data with realistic three-nucleon calculations reveals a pronounced difference at the maximum of A_y(θ), which is most likely due to either an inadequate knowledge of the ³P components of the nucleon-nucleon interaction or to three-body effects in the three-nucleon system.     

Resonant Bhabha scattering at MeV energies

We discuss, on a phenomenological level, the possible appearance of resonances ine ⁺+e ^? scattering at energies in the MeV region. The expected resonance cross section and angular distribution are examined. The observability depends crucially on the attainable energy resolution which is limit by the momentum distribution of the electrons contained in the target.     

Possible resonance structure in the elastic scattering of neutrons by Y near En = 1 MeV

The total cross section as well as the differential cross section and polarization in the elastic scattering of 0.8–1.4 MeV neutrons by Y have been measured with neutron beams of energy spread less than 20 keV. Rather weak structure with widths ≈ 50 keV was observed at a few energies within this range. The data were analyzed by use of a model in which the scattering process is described in terms of resonance amplitudes superimposed on an optical-potential background. Although not completely definitive, this analysis indicates the existence of three intermediate-width resonances (two 1^? and one 1⁺) at neutron energies between ≈ 1.0 and 1.2 MeV. The properties of the 1^? resonances suggest that these are the parent states of the proposed T_> components of the El giant resonance observed near 21 MeV excitation energy in ⁹⁰Zr produced in the ⁸⁹Y(p,γ₀) reaction. The resolved resonance structure in this energy region is in reasonable agreement with a recent calculation of the energies and widths of negative-parity states in ⁹⁰Y.     

Precision measurement of vector and tensor analyzing powers in elastic deuteron-proton scattering

High-precision vector and tensor analyzing powers of elastic deuteron-proton ( d + p) scattering have been measured at intermediate energies to investigate effects of three-nucleon forces. Angular distributions in the range of 70^°-120^° in the center-of mass frame for incident-deuteron energies E _d ^lab = 130 and 180 MeV were obtained using the RIKEN facility. The beam polarization was unambiguously determined by measuring the ^12C (d, α)^10B(2⁺) reaction at 0^°. Results of the measurements are compared with state-of-the-art three-nucleon calculations. The present modeling of nucleon-nucleon forces and its extension to the three-nucleon system is not sufficient to describe the high-precision data consistently and requires, therefore, further investigation.     

Double-charge-exchange and inelastic scattering in π−+3He

The reactions π^?+³He→⁺+3n and π^?+³He→^?+³He were studied to investigate the $\text{T=}\text{3}\text{2}$ three-nucleon system. The differential cross sections were measured at scattering angles from 20 to 40 degrees. The secondary pion was momentum analyzed in a magnetostrictive-readout wire-chamber spectrometer. The double-charge-exchange reaction yielded a secondary pion energy distribution, the features of which can be due to either a $\text{T=}\text{3}\text{2}$ three-nucleon resonance or a resonace of the nucleons in the ³He nucleus. The inelasticc scaterring reaction yielded a secondary pion energy distribution peaked near threshold, consistent with resonances in both the $\text{T=}\text{3}\text{2}$ and $\text{T=}\text{1}\text{2}$ three-nucleon systems.     

Three-nucleon calculations without the explicit use of two-body potentials

Using as two-nucleon interaction input the ³S₁-³D₁ and ¹S₀ partial waves, the Faddeev equations are solved for the three-nucleon bound state. The ³S₁³D₁T-matrix is calculated from the Reid potential. Avoiding the usual potential fit, the ¹S₀T-matrix is directly continued off-shell and is constructed consistent with the ¹S₀ phase shift of elastic two-nucleon scattering. The off-shell part of the ¹S₀T-matrix is parametrized and with this parametrization the dependence of the three-nucleon bound-state properties is studied. As a result it is found that the binding energy varies only between 6.2 MeV and 6.8 MeV, while the minimum in the charge form factor for electron scattering from ³He lies between 12.9 fm^?2 and 18.7 fm^?2. The larger (smaller) ³He binding energy is accompanied by a ³He charge form factor whose minimum is at larger (smaller) momentum transfers.     

The A(y) problem for p-3He elastic scattering

We present evidence that numerically accurate quantum calculations employing modern internucleon forces do not reproduce the proton analyzing power, A(y), for p- 3He elastic scattering at low energies. These calculations underpredict new measured analyzing powers by approximately 30% at E(c.m.) = 1.20 MeV and by 40% at E(c.m.) = 1.69 MeV, an effect analogous to a well-known problem in p-d and n-d scattering. The calculations are performed using the complex Kohn variational principle and the (correlated) hyperspherical harmonics technique with full treatment of the Coulomb force. The inclusion of the three-nucleon interaction does not improve the agreement with the experimental data.