Microscopic origin of pairing

TL;DR

This paper reviews recent advances in ab initio nuclear pairing theory, highlighting progress in solving the BCS gap equation and discussing the semi-microscopic model that incorporates first-principles calculations with phenomenological adjustments.

Contribution

It summarizes recent developments in ab initio approaches to nuclear pairing and discusses the semi-microscopic model combining first-principles interactions with phenomenological terms.

Findings

Successful solutions of ab initio BCS gap equations demonstrate progress.

The role of many-body correlations beyond BCS remains uncertain.

The semi-microscopic model effectively combines first-principles interactions with phenomenological parameters.

Abstract

A brief review of recent progress in the ab intio theory of nuclear pairing is given. Nowdays several successful solutions of the ab intio BCS theory gap equation were published which show that it is a promising first step in the problem. However, the role of many-body correlations that go beyond the BCS scheme remains uncertain and requires further investigations. As an alternative, the semi-microscopic model is discussed in which the effective pairing interaction calculated from the first principles is supplemented with a small phenomenological addendum containing one phenomenological parameter universal for all medium and heavy atomic nuclei.