The Nuclear Tensor Interaction in Covariant Energy Density Functional

TL;DR

This paper presents a relativistic formalism for the nuclear tensor interaction within covariant energy density functional theory, revealing distinct tensor effects and enabling a unified treatment of tensor and spin-orbit interactions in nuclear physics.

Contribution

It introduces a new relativistic formalism for the nuclear tensor interaction in covariant EDF, highlighting its effects and establishing a self-consistent approach to tensor and spin-orbit interactions.

Findings

More distinct tensor effects in Fock diagrams of Lorentz scalar and vector couplings.

Unified treatment of nuclear tensor and spin-orbit interactions.

Reliability of the nuclear tensor interaction for nuclear structure studies.

Abstract

The origin of the nuclear tensor interaction in the covariant energy density functional (EDF) is presented in this work, associated with the Fock diagrams of Lorentz scalar and vector couplings. With this newly obtained relativistic formalism of the nuclear tensor interaction, more distinct tensor effects are found in the Fock diagrams of the Lorentz scalar and vector couplings, as compared to the Lorentz pseudo-vector and tensor channels. A unified and self-consistent treatment on both the nuclear tensor and spin-orbit interactions, which dominate the spin-dependent features of the nuclear force, is then achieved by the relativistic models. Moreover, careful analysis on the tensor strengths indicates the reliability of the nuclear tensor interaction in the covariant EDF for exploring the nuclear structure, excitation and decay modes.