Effects of tensor and $T=0$ pairing interactions on nuclear $\beta^+$/EC decay

TL;DR

This study uses a Skyrme interaction-based HFB+pnQRPA approach to analyze how tensor and T=0 pairing interactions influence nuclear beta decay, successfully reproducing experimental half-lives and revealing their distinct roles.

Contribution

It demonstrates the importance of including tensor and T=0 pairing interactions in theoretical models to accurately predict beta decay half-lives near proton magic numbers.

Findings

Tensor interaction affects GT states differently depending on configurations.

T=0 pairing improves decay half-life predictions.

Tensor interaction is repulsive for certain configurations and attractive for others.

Abstract

The Hartree-Fock-Bogolyubov (HFB) plus proton-neutron quasiparticle random phase approximation (pnQRPA) approach based on Skyrme interaction is applied to study the nuclear $\beta^+$/EC decay for nuclei near the proton magic numbers $Z=$20, 28, and 50. With properly selected Skyrme interactions that include the tensor terms, and the $T=0$ pairing interaction, the experimental $\beta^+$/EC decay half-lives of these nuclei can be systematically reproduced quite well. It is shown that the tensor and $T=0$ pairing interactions play different roles in different nuclei. The specific effect is relevant to the configurations that contribute to the decay. The attractive and repulsive properties of tensor interaction for the GT state is also studied. The present results indicate that it works repulsively on the GT states dominated by the configurations from $\pi j_\gtrless$ to $\nu j_\gtrless$ orbits, while working attractively for those mainly composed of the configurations from $\pi j_\gtrless$ to $\nu j_\lessgtr$ orbits.