Isospin mixing in the vicinity of the N=Z line

TL;DR

This paper develops an isospin- and angular-momentum-projected nuclear density functional theory to analyze isospin-breaking effects in superallowed beta decay near the N=Z line, providing insights into fundamental symmetries and the CKM matrix.

Contribution

It introduces a novel isospin- and angular-momentum-projected DFT approach for studying isospin mixing and symmetry energy in nuclei near the N=Z line.

Findings

Preliminary |V_{ud}| value aligns with recent estimates.

Method enables detailed analysis of isospin-breaking corrections.

Opens new avenues for studying nuclear symmetry energy.

Abstract

We present the isospin- and angular-momentum-projected nuclear density functional theory (DFT) and its applications to the isospin-breaking corrections to the superallowed beta-decay rates in the vicinity of the N=Z line. A preliminary value obtained for the Cabbibo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix element, |V_{ud}|=0.97463(24), agrees well with the recent estimate by Towner and Hardy [Phys. Rev. C{\bf 77}, 025501 (2008)]. We also discuss new opportunities to study the symmetry energy by using the isospin-projected DFT.