Dilute neutron matter on the lattice at next-to-leading order in chiral effective field theory

TL;DR

This paper uses lattice simulations to study dilute neutron matter at next-to-leading order in chiral effective field theory, analyzing ground state energies across various densities and including corrections for realistic nuclear interactions.

Contribution

It applies a previously determined lattice action to simulate the ground state of dilute neutron matter, incorporating higher-order corrections in chiral effective field theory.

Findings

Ground state energy computed for densities 2% to 8% of nuclear density.

Expansion about the unitarity limit with finite scattering length and effective range corrections.

Monte Carlo simulations successfully model dilute neutron matter with realistic interactions.

Abstract

We discuss lattice simulations of the ground state of dilute neutron matter at next-to-leading order in chiral effective field theory. In a previous paper the coefficients of the next-to-leading-order lattice action were determined by matching nucleon-nucleon scattering data for momenta up to the pion mass. Here the same lattice action is used to simulate the ground state of up to 12 neutrons in a periodic cube using Monte Carlo. We explore the density range from 2% to 8% of normal nuclear density and analyze the ground state energy as an expansion about the unitarity limit with corrections due to finite scattering length, effective range, and P-wave interactions.