J. W. Holt

Nuclear chiral dynamics and thermodynamics

This presentation reviews an approach to nuclear many-body systems based on the spontaneously broken chiral symmetry of low-energy QCD. In the low-energy limit, for energies and momenta small compared to a characteristic symmetry breaking scale of order 1 GeV, QCD is realized as an effective field theory of Goldstone bosons (pions) coupled to heavy fermionic sources (nucleons). Nuclear forces at long and intermediate distance scales result from a systematic hierarchy of one- and two-pion exchange processes in combination with Pauli blocking effects in the nuclear medium. Short distance dynamics, not resolved at the wavelengths corresponding to typical nuclear Fermi momenta, are introduced as contact interactions between nucleons. Apart from a set of low-energy constants associated with these contact terms, the parameters of this theory are entirely determined by pion properties and low-energy pion-nucleon scattering observables. This framework (in-medium chiral perturbation theory) can provide a realistic description of both isospin-symmetric nuclear matter and neutron matter, with emphasis on the isospin-dependence determined by the underlying chiral NN interaction. The importance of three-body forces is emphasized, and the role of explicit �(1232)-isobar degrees of freedom is investigated in detail. Nuclear chiral thermodynamics is developed and a calculation of the nuclear phase diagram is performed. This includes a successful description of the first-order phase transition from a nuclear Fermi liquid to an interacting Fermi gas and the coexistence of these phases below a critical temperature Tc. Density functional methods for finite nuclei based on this approach are also discussed. Effective interactions, their density dependence and connections to Landau Fermi liquid theory are outlined. Finally, the density and temperature dependence of the chiral (quark) condensate is investigated.

Nuclear-matter equation of state with consistent two- and three-body perturbative chiral interactions

3 H- 3 He Gamow-Teller transition matrix element. In this way, the saturation properties of nuclear matter are reproduced in a parameter-free approach. The equation of state is computed up to third order in many-body perturbation theory, with special emphasis on the role of the third-order particle-hole diagram. The dependence of these results on the cuto scale and regulator function is studied. We nd that the inclusion of threenucleon forces consistent with the applied two-nucleon interaction leads to a reduced dependence on the choice of the regulator only for lower values of the cuto.

Reduced regulator dependence of neutron-matter predictions with perturbative chiral interactions

We calculate the energy per particle in infinite neutron matter perturbatively using chiral N3LO two-body potentials plus N2LO three-body forces. The cutoff dependence of the predictions is investigated by employing chiral interactions with different regulators. We find that the inclusion of three-nucleon forces, which are consistent with the applied two-nucleon interaction, leads to a strongly reduced regulator dependence of the results.

Toward order-by-order calculations of the nuclear and neutron matter equations of state in chiral effective field theory

We calculate the nuclear and neutron matter equations of state from microscopic nuclear forces at different orders in chiral effective field theory and with varying momentum-space cutoff scales. We focus attention on how the order-by-order convergence depends on the choice of resolution scale and the implications for theoretical uncertainty estimates on the isospin asymmetry energy. Specifically we study the equations of state using consistent NLO and N2LO (next-to-next-to-leading order) chiral potentials where the low-energy constants cD and cE associated with contact vertices in the N2LO chiral three-nucleon force are fitted to reproduce the binding energies of 3H and 3He as well as the beta-decay lifetime of 3H. At these low orders in the chiral expansion there is little sign of convergence, while an exploratory study employing the N3LO two-nucleon force together with the N2LO three-nucleon force give first indications for (slow) convergence with low-cutoff potentials and poor convergence with higher-cutoff potentials. The consistent NLO and N2LO potentials described in the present work provide the basis for estimating theoretical uncertainties associated with the order-by-order convergence of nuclear many-body calculations in chiral effective field theory.

Auxiliary-Field Quantum Monte Carlo Simulations of Neutron Matter in Chiral Effective Field Theory

We present variational Monte Carlo calculations of the neutron matter equation of state using chiral nuclear forces. The ground-state wave function of neutron matter, containing nonperturbative many-body correlations, is obtained from auxiliary-field quantum Monte Carlo simulations of up to about 340 neutrons interacting on a 10(3) discretized lattice. The evolution Hamiltonian is chosen to be attractive and spin independent in order to avoid the fermion sign problem and is constructed to best reproduce broad features of the chiral nuclear force. This is facilitated by choosing a lattice spacing of 1.5 fm, corresponding to a momentum-space cutoff of Λ=414u2009u2009MeV/c, a resolution scale at which strongly repulsive features of nuclear two-body forces are suppressed. Differences between the evolution potential and the full chiral nuclear interaction (Entem and Machleidt Λ=414u2009u2009MeV [L. Coraggio et al., Phys. Rev. C 87, 014322 (2013).

Nuclear thermodynamics from chiral low-momentum interactions

We investigate the thermodynamic equation of state of isospin-symmetric nuclear matter with microscopic nuclear forces derived within the framework of chiral effective field theory. Two- and three-body nuclear interactions constructed at low-resolution scales form the basis for a perturbative calculation of the finite-temperature equation of state. The nuclear force models and many-body methods are benchmarked against bulk properties of isospin-symmetric nuclear matter at zero temperature, which are found to be well reproduced when chiral nuclear interactions constructed at the lowest resolution scales are employed. The calculations are then extended to finite temperatures, where we focus on the liquid-gas phase transition and the associated critical point. The Maxwell construction is applied to construct the physical equation of state, and the value of the critical temperature is determined to be

Microscopic optical potential from chiral nuclear forces

{T}_{c}=17.2

Chiral Fermi liquid approach to neutron matter

char21{}19.1 MeV, in good agreement with the value extracted from multifragmentation reactions of heavy ions.

Effect of three-body forces on response functions in infinite neutron matter

The energy- and density-dependent single-particle potential for nucleons is constructed in a medium of infinite isospin-symmetric nuclear matter starting from realistic nuclear interactions derived within the framework of chiral effective field theory. The leading-order terms from both two- and three-nucleon forces give rise to real, energy-independent contributions to the nucleon self-energy. The Hartree-Fock contribution from the two-nucleon force is attractive and strongly momentum dependent, in contrast to the contribution from the three-nucleon force which provides a nearly constant repulsive mean field that grows approximately linearly with the nuclear density. Together, the leading-order perturbative contributions yield an attractive single-particle potential that is however too weak compared to phenomenology. Second-order contributions from two- and three-body forces then provide the additional attraction required to reach the phenomenological depth. The imaginary part of the optical potential, which is positive (negative) for momenta below (above) the Fermi momentum, arises at second-order and is nearly inversion-symmetric about the Fermi surface when two-nucleon interactions alone are present. The imaginary part is strongly absorptive and requires the inclusion of an effective mass correction as well as self-consistent single-particle energies to attain qualitative agreement with phenomenology.

Chiral nucleon-nucleon forces in nuclear structure calculations

We present a microscopic calculation of the complete quasiparticle interaction, including central as well as noncentral components, in neutron matter from high-precision two- and three-body forces derived within the framework of chiral effective field theory. The contributions from two-nucleon forces are computed in many-body perturbation theory to first and second order (without any simplifying approximations). In addition we include the leading-order one-loop diagrams from the N2LO chiral three-nucleon force, which contribute to all Fermi liquid parameters except those associated with the center-of-mass tensor interaction. The relative-momentum dependence of the quasiparticle interaction is expanded in Legendre polynomials up to L=2. Second-order Pauli blocking and medium polarization effects act coherently in specific channels, namely for the Landau parameters f_1, h_0 and g_0, which results in a dramatic increase in the quasiparticle effective mass as well as a decrease in both the effective tensor force and the neutron matter spin susceptibility. For densities greater than about half nuclear matter saturation density rho_0, the contributions to the Fermi liquid parameters from the leading-order chiral three-nucleon force scale in all cases approximately linearly with the nucleon density. The largest effect of the three-nucleon force is to generate a strongly repulsive effective interaction in the isotropic spin-independent channel. We show that the leading-order chiral three-nucleon force leads to an increase in the spin susceptibility of neutron matter, but we observe no evidence for a ferromagnetic spin instability in the vicinity of the saturation density rho_0. This work sets the foundation for future studies of neutron matter response to weak and electromagnetic probes with applications to neutron star structure and evolution.