Critical Temperature for $\alpha$-Particle Condensation within a Momentum Projected Mean Field Approach

TL;DR

This paper investigates the critical temperature for alpha-particle condensation in nuclear matter using a momentum projected mean field approach, extending the Thouless criterion to quartets and analyzing single particle wave functions.

Contribution

It introduces a simplified in-medium four-body problem with a momentum projected mean field ansatz for quartets, extending the critical temperature criterion to alpha-particle condensation.

Findings

Self-consistent single particle wave functions are obtained for various densities.

The approach simplifies the four-body problem in the medium.

The extended Thouless criterion is applied to quartet condensation.

Abstract

Alpha-particle (quartet) condensation in homogeneous spin-isospin symmetric nuclear matter is investigated. The usual Thouless criterion for the critical temperature is extended to the quartet case. The in-medium four-body problem is strongly simplified by the use of a momentum projected mean field ansatz for the quartet. The self-consistent single particle wave functions are shown and discussed for various values of the density at the critical temperature.