Nuclear forces and their impact on neutron-rich nuclei and neutron-rich matter

TL;DR

This paper reviews how nuclear forces, especially three-nucleon forces derived from chiral effective field theory, influence the structure of neutron-rich nuclei and matter, impacting phenomena like shell formation and neutron star properties.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of the role of three-nucleon forces in neutron-rich systems, highlighting recent theoretical and experimental advances.

Findings

Three-nucleon forces significantly affect shell structure and exotic nuclei spectroscopy.

Chiral effective field theory offers unique predictions for many-body nuclear forces.

Results connect nuclear physics with neutron star observations.

Abstract

We review the impact of nuclear forces on matter at neutron-rich extremes. Recent results have shown that neutron-rich nuclei become increasingly sensitive to three-nucleon forces, which are at the forefront of theoretical developments based on effective field theories of quantum chromodynamics. This includes the formation of shell structure, the spectroscopy of exotic nuclei, and the location of the neutron dripline. Nuclear forces also constrain the properties of neutron-rich matter, including the neutron skin, the symmetry energy, and the structure of neutron stars. We first review our understanding of three-nucleon forces and show how chiral effective field theory makes unique predictions for many-body forces. Then, we survey results with three-nucleon forces in neutron-rich oxygen and calcium isotopes and neutron-rich matter, which have been explored with a range of many-body methods. Three-nucleon forces therefore provide an exciting link between theoretical, experimental and observational nuclear physics frontiers.