Electromagnetic Transition Strengths for Light Nuclei in the Skyrme model

TL;DR

This paper uses the Skyrme model to calculate electromagnetic transition strengths in light nuclei, successfully matching experimental data and predicting properties of specific nuclear states.

Contribution

It provides a novel application of the Skyrme model to compute electromagnetic transition strengths and intrinsic quadrupole moments for multiple light nuclei.

Findings

Predicted transition strengths are of correct order of magnitude.

Computed quadrupole moments match observed nuclear shapes.

Large B(E2) value predicted for the Hoyle state.

Abstract

We calculate reduced $B(E2)$ electromagnetic transition strengths for light nuclei of mass numbers $B=8,12,16,20,24$ and $32$ within the Skyrme model. We find that the predicted transition strengths are of the correct order of magnitude and the computed intrinsic quadrupole moments match the experimentally observed effective nuclear shapes. For the Hoyle state we predict a large $B(E2)\!\uparrow$ value of $0.0521\, \rm{e}^2\rm{b}^2$. For Oxygen-16, we can obtain a quantitative understanding of the ground state rotational band and the rotational excitations of the second spin-0 state, $0_2^+$.