Probing mixed-spin pairing in heavy nuclei

TL;DR

This paper investigates mixed-spin pairing condensates in heavy nuclei using advanced theoretical methods, finding that such pairing persists despite suppression of correlation energy and exploring ways to experimentally detect this phase.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed analysis of mixed-spin pairing in heavy nuclei with improved computational methods and examines the robustness of this pairing against Hamiltonian modifications.

Findings

Mixed-spin pairing persists despite reduced correlation energy.

The pairing phase remains robust under Hamiltonian variations.

Potential experimental probes for mixed-spin pairing are discussed.

Abstract

The nature of the nuclear pairing condensate is an active topic of investigation, especially as regards its neutron-proton versus identical-particle character, which manifests as the difference between spin-singlet and spin-triplet pairing. In this work, we probe the recently proposed mixed-spin pairing condensates, using a phenomenological Hamiltonian and Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov theory along with the gradient method. In addition to improving the solution of the many-body problem, we have calculated a series of physical quantities and examined the robustness of the mixed-spin pairing state as the input Hamiltonian is modified. Overall, we find that even though the mixed-spin correlation energy is suppressed in comparison to earlier work, the new pairing behavior persists. We also discuss the possibility of directly probing the mixed-spin pairing phase.