0000000000179509
AUTHOR
Sonia Bacca
Dispersive evaluation of the Lamb shift in muonic deuterium from chiral effective field theory
We merge the dispersive relation approach and the ab initio method to compute nuclear structure corrections to the Lamb shift in muonic deuterium. We calculate the deuteron response functions and corresponding uncertainties up to next-to-next-to-next-to-leading order in chiral effective field theory and compare our results to selected electromagnetic data to test the validity of the theory. We then feed response functions calculated over a wide range of kinematics to the dispersion-theory formalism and show that an improved accuracy is obtained compared to that with the use of available experimental data in the dispersive analysis. This opens up the possibility of applying this hybrid metho…
Muonic Lithium atoms: nuclear structure corrections to the Lamb shift
In view of the future plans to measure the Lamb shift in muonic Lithium atoms we address the microscopic theory of the $\mu$-$^6$Li$^{2+}$ and $\mu$-$^7$Li$^{2+}$ systems. The goal of the CREMA collaboration is to measure the Lamb shift to extract the charge radius with high precision and compare it to electron scattering data or atomic spectroscopy to see if interesting puzzles, such as the proton and deuteron radius puzzles, arise. For this experiment to be successful, theoretical information on the nuclear structure corrections to the Lamb shift is needed. For $\mu$-$^6$Li$^{2+}$ and $\mu$-$^7$Li$^{2+}$ there exist only estimates of nuclear structure corrections based on experimental dat…
Neutrino-deuteron scattering: Uncertainty quantification and new L1,A constraints
We study neutral- and charged-current (anti)neutrino-induced dissociation of the deuteron at energies from threshold up to 150 MeV by employing potentials, as well as one- and two-body currents, derived in chiral effective field theory ($\ensuremath{\chi}\mathrm{EFT}$). We provide uncertainty estimates from $\ensuremath{\chi}\mathrm{EFT}$ truncations of the electroweak current, dependences on the $\ensuremath{\chi}\mathrm{EFT}$ cutoff, and variations in the pool of fit data used to fix the low-energy constants of $\ensuremath{\chi}\mathrm{EFT}$. At 100 MeV of incident (anti)neutrino energy, these uncertainties amount to about 2--3% and are smaller than the sensitivity of the cross sections …
Ab initio calculation of Li7 photodisintegration
The Li7 total photoabsorption cross section is calculated microscopically. As nucleon-nucleon interaction the semi-realistic central AV4' potential with S- and P-wave forces is taken. The interaction of the final 7-nucleon system is fully taken into account via the Lorentz Integral Transform (LIT) method. For the calculation of the LIT we use expansions in hyperspherical harmonics (HH) in conjunction with the HH effective interaction (EIHH) approach. The convergence of the LIT expansion is discussed in detail. The calculated cross section agrees quite well with the available experimental data, which cover an energy range from threshold up to 100 MeV.
Computing the dipole polarizability of 48Ca with increased precision
We compute the electric dipole polarizability of 48Ca with an increased precision by including more correlations than in previous studies. Employing the coupled-cluster method we go beyond singles and doubles excitations and include leading-order three-particle-three-hole (3p-3h) excitations for the ground state, excited states, and the similarity transformed operator. We study electromagnetic sum rules, such as the bremsstrahlung sum rule m_0 and the polarizability sum rule alpha_D using interactions from chiral effective field theory. To gauge the quality of our coupled-cluster approximations we perform several benchmarks with the effective interaction hyperspherical harmonics approach in…
Benchmark calculations of electromagnetic sum rules with a symmetry-adapted basis and hyperspherical harmonics
We demonstrate the ability to calculate electromagnetic sum rules with the \textit{ab initio} symmetry-adapted no-core shell model. By implementing the Lanczos algorithm, we compute non-energy weighted, energy weighted, and inverse energy weighted sum rules for electric monopole, dipole, and quadrupole transitions in $^4$He using realistic interactions. We benchmark the results with the hyperspherical harmonics method and show agreement within $2\sigma$, where the uncertainties are estimated from the use of the many-body technique. We investigate the dependence of the results on three different interactions, including chiral potentials, and we report on the $^4$He electric dipole polarizabi…
Role of Chiral Two-Body Currents in Li6 Magnetic Properties in Light of a New Precision Measurement with the Relative Self-Absorption Technique
A direct measurement of the decay width of the excited ${0}_{1}^{+}$ state of $^{6}\mathrm{Li}$ using the relative self-absorption technique is reported. Our value of ${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Gamma}}}_{\ensuremath{\gamma},{0}_{1}^{+}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{1}_{1}^{+}}=8.17(14{)}_{\mathrm{stat}.}(11{)}_{\mathrm{syst}.}\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{eV}$ provides sufficiently low experimental uncertainties to test modern theories of nuclear forces. The corresponding transition rate is compared to the results of ab initio calculations based on chiral effective field theory that take into account contributions to the magnetic dipole operator beyond leading order. This enables a precision test of the im…
Zemach moments and radii of H2,3 and He3,4
We present benchmark calculations of Zemach moments and radii of $^{2,3}\mathrm{H}$ and $^{3,4}\mathrm{He}$ using various few-body methods. Zemach moments are required to interpret muonic atom data measured by the CREMA collaboration at the Paul Scherrer Institute. Conversely, radii extracted from spectroscopic measurements can be compared with ab initio computations, posing stringent constraints on the nuclear model. For a given few-body method, different numerical procedures can be applied to compute these quantities. A detailed analysis of the numerical uncertainties entering the total theoretical error is presented. Uncertainties from the few-body method and the calculational procedure …
Effective interaction method for hyperspherical harmonics
Abstract The effective interaction hyperspherical harmonics (EIHH) method [1] is outlined. Recent extensions of the approach are discussed. Results for binding energies and radii of various p-shell nuclei are shown.
Coulomb sum rule for He4 and O16 from coupled-cluster theory
We demonstrate the capability of coupled-cluster theory to compute the Coulomb sum rule for the $^{4}\mathrm{He}$ and $^{16}\mathrm{O}$ nuclei using interactions from chiral effective field theory. We perform several checks, including a few-body benchmark for $^{4}\mathrm{He}$. We provide an analysis of the center-of-mass contaminations, which we are able to safely remove. We then compare with other theoretical results and experimental data available in the literature, obtaining a fair agreement. This is a first and necessary step towards initiating a program for computing neutrino-nucleus interactions from first principles in coupled-cluster theory and supporting the experimental long-base…
White paper: from bound states to the continuum
This white paper reports on the discussions of the 2018 Facility for Rare Isotope Beams Theory Alliance (FRIB-TA) topical program ‘From bound states to the continuum: Connecting bound state calculations with scattering and reaction theory’. One of the biggest and most important frontiers in nuclear theory today is to construct better and stronger bridges between bound state calculations and calculations in the continuum, especially scattering and reaction theory, as well as teasing out the influence of the continuum on states near threshold. This is particularly challenging as many-body structure calculations typically use a bound state basis, while reaction calculations more commonly utili…
Implementation of local chiral interactions in the hyperspherical harmonics formalism
With the goal of using chiral interactions at various orders to explore properties of the few-body nuclear systems, we write the recently developed local chiral interactions as spherical irreducible tensors and implement them in the hyperspherical harmonics expansion method. We devote particular attention to three-body forces at next-to-next-to leading order, which play an important role in reproducing experimental data. We check our implementation by benchmarking the ground-state properties of $^3$H, $^3$He and $^4$He against the available Monte Carlo calculations. We then confirm their order-by-order truncation error estimates and further investigate uncertainties in the charge radii obta…
The deuteron-radius puzzle is alive: A new analysis of nuclear structure uncertainties
To shed light on the deuteron radius puzzle we analyze the theoretical uncertainties of the nuclear structure corrections to the Lamb shift in muonic deuterium. We find that the discrepancy between the calculated two-photon exchange correction and the corresponding experimentally inferred value by Pohl et al. [1] remain. The present result is consistent with our previous estimate, although the discrepancy is reduced from 2.6 $\sigma$ to 2 $\sigma$. The error analysis includes statistic as well as systematic uncertainties stemming from the use of nucleon-nucleon interactions derived from chiral effective field theory at various orders. We therefore conclude that nuclear theory uncertainty is…
Ab Initio Computation of the Longitudinal Response Function in Ca40
We present a consistent ab initio computation of the longitudinal response function ${R}_{L}$ in $^{40}\mathrm{Ca}$ using the coupled-cluster and Lorentz integral transform methods starting from chiral nucleon-nucleon and three-nucleon interactions. We validate our approach by comparing our results for ${R}_{L}$ in $^{4}\mathrm{He}$ and the Coulomb sum rule in $^{40}\mathrm{Ca}$ against experimental data and other calculations. For ${R}_{L}$ in $^{40}\mathrm{Ca}$ we obtain a very good agreement with experiment in the quasielastic peak up to intermediate momentum transfers, and we find that final state interactions are essential for an accurate description of the data. This work presents a m…
Ab initio calculation of nuclear structure corrections in muonic atoms
The measurement of the Lamb shift in muonic hydrogen and the subsequent emergence of the proton-radius puzzle have motivated an experimental campaign devoted to measuring the Lamb shift in other light muonic atoms, such as muonic deuterium and helium. For these systems it has been shown that two-photon exchange nuclear structure corrections are the largest source of uncertainty and consequently the bottleneck for exploiting the experimental precision to extract the nuclear charge radius. Utilizing techniques and methods developed to study electromagnetic reactions in light nuclei, recent calculations of nuclear structure corrections to the muonic Lamb shift have reached unprecedented precis…
A Statistical Analysis of the Nuclear Structure Uncertainties in $$\mu $$D
The charge radius of the deuteron (D), was recently determined to three times the precision compared with previous measurements using the measured Lamb shift in muonic deuterium (\(\mu \)D). However, the \(\mu \)D value is 5.6 \(\sigma \) smaller than the world averaged CODATA-2014 value (Pohl R et al. (2016) Science 353:669 [1]). To shed light on this discrepancy we analyze the uncertainties of the nuclear structure calculations of the Lamb shift in \(\mu \)D and conclude that nuclear theory uncertainty is not likely to be the source of the discrepancy.
Uncertainty quantification in electromagnetic observables of nuclei
We present strategies to quantify theoretical uncertainties in modern ab-initio calculations of electromagnetic observables in light and medium-mass nuclei. We discuss how uncertainties build up from various sources, such as the approximations introduced by the few- or many-body solver and the truncation of the chiral effective field theory expansion. We review the recent progress encompassing a broad range of electromagnetic observables in stable and unstable nuclei.
Coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering on 40Ar from first principles
Coherent elastic neutrino scattering on the 40Ar nucleus is computed with coupled-cluster theory based on nuclear Hamiltonians inspired by effective field theories of quantum chromodynamics. Our approach is validated by calculating the charge form factor and comparing it to data from electron scattering. We make predictions for the weak form factor, the neutron radius, and the neutron skin, and estimate systematic uncertainties. The neutron-skin thickness of 40Ar40 is consistent with results from density functional theory. Precision measurements from coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering could potentially be used to extract these observables and help to constrain nuclear models.
Inclusive electron scattering off 4He
Inclusive electron scattering off 4He is investigated for low and medium energy and momentum transfers. The final state interaction, given by the simple semirealistic Malfliet-Tjon potential, is treated rigorously applying the Lorentz Integral Transform (LIT) method. Besides the nonrelativistic one-body current a consistent meson exchange current is constructed and implemented. Results are presented for both longitudinal and transverse response functions at various momentum transfers. Good agreement with experimental data is found for the longitudinal response function, while some strength is missing in the transverse response function on the low-energy side of the quasi-elastic peak.
Charge Radius of the Short-Lived Ni68 and Correlation with the Dipole Polarizability
We present the first laser spectroscopic measurement of the neutron-rich nucleus ^{68}Ni at the N=40 subshell closure and extract its nuclear charge radius. Since this is the only short-lived isotope for which the dipole polarizability α_{D} has been measured, the combination of these observables provides a benchmark for nuclear structure theory. We compare them to novel coupled-cluster calculations based on different chiral two- and three-nucleon interactions, for which a strong correlation between the charge radius and dipole polarizability is observed, similar to the stable nucleus ^{48}Ca. Three-particle-three-hole correlations in coupled-cluster theory substantially improve the descrip…