Microscopic study of 4-alpha-particle condensation with proper treatment of resonances

TL;DR

This paper investigates the 4-alpha condensate state in oxygen-16 using the THSR wave function, revealing a new dilute 0+ state with strong alpha condensate features and connecting it to experimental observations.

Contribution

It introduces a proper resonance treatment in the THSR framework, identifying a new 0+ condensate state in ^{16}O and analyzing its structure and properties.

Findings

Discovery of a fourth 0+ state above the 4-alpha threshold.

The new state exhibits a dilute density and alpha condensate characteristics.

The state likely corresponds to the experimentally observed 0_6^+ at 15.1 MeV.

Abstract

The 4-alpha condensate state for ^{16}O is discussed with the THSR (Tohsaki-Horiuchi-Schuck-Roepke) wave function which has alpha-particle condensate character. Taking into account a proper treatment of resonances, it is found that the 4-alpha THSR wave function yields a fourth 0^+ state in the continuum above the 4-alpha-breakup threshold in addition to the three 0^+ states obtained in a previous analysis. It is shown that this fourth 0^+ ((0_4^+)_{THSR}) state has an analogous structure to the Hoyle state, since it has a very dilute density and a large component of alpha+^{12}C(0_2^+) configuration. Furthermore, single-alpha motions are extracted from the microscopic 16-nucleon wave function, and the condensate fraction and momentum distribution of alpha particles are quantitatively discussed. It is found that for the (0_4^+)_{THSR} state a large alpha-particle occupation probability concentrates on a single-alpha 0S orbit and the alpha-particle momentum distribution has a delta-function-like peak at zero momentum, both indicating that the state has a strong 4-alpha condensate character. It is argued that the (0_4^+)_{THSR} state is the counterpart of the 0_6^+ state which was obtained as the 4-alpha condensate state in the previous 4-alpha OCM (Orthogonality Condition Model) calculation, and therefore is likely to correspond to the 0_6^+ state observed at 15.1 MeV.