Weak reactions with light nuclei - 6He beta-decay as a test case for the nuclear weak current

TL;DR

This paper performs a detailed microscopic calculation of 6He beta-decay into 6Li's ground state, testing the nuclear weak current with high numerical accuracy using advanced nuclear models.

Contribution

It introduces a precise, ab initio calculation of 6He beta-decay employing the hyperspherical-harmonics approach and the JISP nucleon-nucleon interaction, setting a benchmark for weak current studies.

Findings

Numerical accuracy of about 0.2% in the transition matrix element.

Results support the estimation of meson-exchange current contributions.

Method provides a foundation for future detailed weak interaction analyses.

Abstract

We present a microscopic calculation of the 6He beta-decay into the ground state of 6Li. To this end we use the impulse approximation to describe the nuclear weak current. The ground state wave functions are obtained from the solution of the nuclear 6-body problem. The nucleonnucleon interaction is described via the J-matrix inverse scattering potential (JISP), and the nuclear problem is solved using the hyperspherical-harmonics approach. This approach results in numerical accuracy of about 2 per mil in the transition matrix element. Bearing in mind that the contribution of meson-exchange currents to the transition matrix element is about 5%, these results pave the way for accurate estimation of their effect.