BCS-BEC crossover in nuclear matter with the relativistic Hartree-Bogoliubov theory

TL;DR

This study uses the relativistic Hartree-Bogoliubov theory to explore how pairing interactions influence the transition from neutron superfluidity to Bose-Einstein condensation in nuclear matter, revealing conditions for BEC formation.

Contribution

It systematically investigates the BCS-BEC crossover in nuclear matter using a relativistic framework and varying pairing interaction strength, highlighting the emergence of di-neutron BEC states.

Findings

Di-neutron BEC appears at strong pairing interactions (factor > 1.10).

Weak coupling BCS state dominates at lower pairing factors (< 0.85).

Characteristic quantities for the crossover are quantified.

Abstract

Based on the relativistic Hartree-Bogoliubov theory, the influence of the pairing interaction strength on the di-neutron correlations and the crossover from superfluidity of neutron Cooper pairs in the $^{1}S_{0}$ channel to Bose-Einstein condensation of di-neutron pairs is systematically investigated in the nuclear matter. The bare nucleon-nucleon interaction Bonn-B is taken in the particle-particle channel with an effective factor to simulate the medium effects and take into account the possible ambiguity of pairing force, and the effective interaction PK1 is used in the particle-hole channel. If the effective factor is larger than 1.10, a di-neutron BEC state appears in the low-density limit, and if it is smaller than 0.85, the neutron Cooper pairs are found totally in the weak coupling BCS region. The reference values of several characteristic quantities which characterize the BCS-BEC crossover are obtained respectively from the dimensionless parameter $1/(k_{\rm Fn}a)$ with $a$ the scattering length and $k_{\rm{Fn}}$ the neutron Fermi momentum, the zero-momentum transfer density correlation function D(0) and the effective chemical potential $\nu_{\rm n}$.