$\alpha$ and triton clustering in $^{35}$Cl
Yasutaka Taniguchi

TL;DR
This study investigates the coupling of cluster and deformed structures in $^{35}$Cl using AMD and GCM methods, revealing the relationship between threshold energies and excitation energies of high-lying cluster states.
Contribution
It provides a detailed analysis of cluster and deformed state coupling in $^{35}$Cl, predicting various deformed bands and elucidating the structure of high-lying cluster states.
Findings
Deformed bands including a $K^rac{1}{2}^-$ band matching observed SD states.
High-lying states are almost pure $ ext{α}$- and $ ext{t}$-cluster states.
Excitation energies of $ ext{t}$-cluster states are higher than those of $ ext{α}$-cluster states.
Abstract
Coupling of cluster and deformed structures are important for dynamics of nuclear structure. Threshold energy has been discussed to explain cluster structures coupling to deformed states but relation between threshold energy and excitation energy has open problems. Negative-parity superdeformed (SD) states were observed by a -spectroscopy experiment in Cl but its detailed structure is unclear. By analyzing coupling of cluster structures in deformed states and high-lying cluster states in Cl, cluster structures coupling to deformed states and excitation energy of high-lying cluster states are investigated. The antisymmetrized molecular dynamics (AMD) and the generator coordinate method (GCM) are used. An AMD wave function is a Slater determinant of Gaussian wave packets. By energy variational calculations with constraints on deformation and clustering, wave…
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and triton clustering in 35Cl
Yasutaka Taniguchi
Department of Information Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Kagawa College, Kagawa 769-1192, Japan
Abstract
Background
Coupling of cluster and deformed structures are important for dynamics of nuclear structure. Threshold energy has been discussed to explain cluster structures coupling to deformed states but relation between threshold energy and excitation energy has open problems. Negative-parity superdeformed (SD) states were observed by a -spectroscopy experiment in 35Cl but its detailed structure is unclear.
Purpose
By analyzing coupling of cluster structures in deformed states and high-lying cluster states in 35Cl, cluster structures coupling to deformed states and excitation energy of high-lying cluster states are investigated.
Method
The antisymmetrized molecular dynamics (AMD) and the generator coordinate method (GCM) are used. An AMD wave function is a Slater determinant of Gaussian wave packets. By energy variational calculations with constraints on deformation and clustering, wave functions of deformed structures and -31P and -32S cluster structures are obtained. Adopting those wave functions as GCM basis, wave functions of ground and excited states are calculated.
Results
Various deformed bands are obtained and predicted. A deformed band, which corresponds to the observed SD band, dominates deformed structure and compact -31P and -32S cluster structure components. Particle-hole configurations of the dominant components with deformed and cluster structures are similar. In high-lying states, almost pure -31P and -32S cluster states are obtained in negative-parity states, and excitation energies of the -32S cluster states are higher than those of -31P cluster states.
Conclusions
Particle-hole configurations of cluster structure with small intercluster distance are important for coupling to low-energy deformed states. Threshold energies reflect to excitation energies of high-lying almost pure cluster states.
pacs:
I Introduction
Nuclear structure changes drastically by excitation. A goal of nuclear physics is to understand mechanism of structure changes. Clustering and deformation play important roles for nuclear structure. For examples, -clustering explains coexistence of inversion doublet bandsHoriuchi and Ikeda (1968) and enhancement of -transferBecchetti et al. (1978); Anantaraman et al. (1979); Fukui et al. (2016, 2019) and -knockout reaction cross sectionsRoos et al. (1977); Nadasen et al. (1980); Wang et al. (1985); Nadasen et al. (1989); Yoshida et al. (2018). Deformation explains strong E2 transition strengths and rotational spectra.
Cluster structures couple to deformed states in - and -shell region. In 40Ca, normal-deformed (ND) and superdeformed (SD) bands have been observed up to high-spin statesIdeguchi et al. (2001). -36Ar clustering of the ND band was predicted by cluster modelOhkubo and Umehara (1988); Reidemeister et al. (1990), and it was confirmed experimentally by -transfer reactionYamaya et al. (1994). Coupling of -36Ar cluster structure to the ND states were discussed by using semi-microscopicSakuda and Ohkubo (1994) and full microscopic calculationsTaniguchi et al. (2007). Coupling and mixing of cluster structures to deformed states are also discussed in 32,34SOhkubo and Yamashita (2002); Kimura and Horiuchi (2004), 36ArSakuda and Ohkubo (2004), 42CaSakuda and Ohkubo (1995); Taniguchi (2014) and 44TiFriedrich and Langanke (1975); Reidemeister et al. (1990); Yamaya et al. (1990); Kimura and Horiuchi (2006).
In order to understand cluster structure, the threshold rule has been proposedIkeda et al. (1968). The threshold rule predicts that cluster structures are developed in excited states whose excitation energies are similar to threshold energies of cluster decay. It is powerful in very light nuclei such as 12C and 16O. The state in 12C is considered to have dilute structureUegaki et al. (1977, 1979); Kamimura (1981); Funaki et al. (2003), and its excitation energy (7.65 MeV) is similar to threshold energy (7.27 MeV). In 16O, -12C cluster structure develops at the state (6.04 MeV)Horiuchi and Ikeda (1968); Suzuki and Ikeda (1974); Suzuki (1976a, b), which is close to threshold energy (7.16 MeV). In -shell or heavier region, however, the threshold rule do not work quantitatively. The state in 40Ca is considered to contain a large amount of -36Ar cluster structure components, but its excitation energy (3.35 MeV) is much less than + 36Ar threshold energy (7.04 MeV).
Particle-hole excitations are also discussed for nuclear clustering. When nucleons are excited to higher shell and those nucleons correlate spatially and strongly, they are expected to form a clusterArima et al. (1967); Ikeda et al. (1972). However, relations of intercluster motion and particle-hole configurations are open problems.
The threshold rule is simple, and it has been widely discussed in clustering in deformed states. In 35Cl, a negative-parity superdeformed band have been observed from (8.31 MeV) to (16.30 MeV) states by a -spectroscopy experimentBisoi et al. (2013). In-band values are deduced, and the values are around 30 W.u, which shows the band form largely deformed structure. In Ref. Bisoi et al., 2013, -32S cluster structure with one proton hole of the band is discussed with mentioning threshold energies of P and S channels, which are 6.99 MeV and 17.94 MeV, respectively. Just because of lower threshold energy, coupling of -31P cluster structure to the SD band is predicted. However, details of cluster coupling of the band are not discussed, and theoretical work of cluster structure are insufficient in 35Cl.
Naive structure of deformed states are described by using the Nilsson model, which shows single-particle orbits on a deformed mean-field. By analyzing single-particle orbits on a deformed mean-field, multi-particle multi-hole configurations of largely deformed states are explained such as SD states in 40CaIdeguchi et al. (2001); Inakura et al. (2002); Bender et al. (2003), but it negletcs many-body correlation effects such as clustering. In order to investigate detailed structure including correlation effects, multi-particle correlation effects should be taken into account directly.
This paper aims to clarify -31P and -32S cluster correlations in 35Cl. By using the antisymmetrized molecular dynamics (AMD) and the generator coordinate method (GCM), various structures including SD states are obtained. Cluster structures in the SD band and high-lying states are analyzed focusing on particle-hole configurations and threshold energies, and coupling of cluster structure to deformed states and mechanism to generate high-lying cluster states are investigated.
This paper is organized as follows. In Sec. II, the framework of this works is explained briefly. In Sec. III, numerical results about energies of deformed and cluster structure, level scheme, values, and the amounts of -31P and -32S cluster structure components are shown. In Sec. IV, cluster structures coupling to deformed states and excitation energies of high-lying cluster states are discussed. Finally, conclusions are given in Sec. V.
II Framework
In this section, the framework of the study is explained briefly. The details of the framework are provided in Refs. Kanada-En’yo and Horiuchi, 1995; Kimura, 2004; Taniguchi et al., 2004.
II.1 Wave function
The wave functions are obtained by the GCM after parity and angular momentum projection using deformed-basis AMD wave functions. A deformed-basis AMD wave function is a Slater determinant of Gaussian wave packets that can deform triaxially such that
[TABLE]
where denotes the antisymmetrization operator, and denotes a single-particle wave function. Further, , , and denote the spatial, spin, and isospin components, respectively, of each single-particle wave function . The real matrix denotes the width of the Gaussian single-particle wave functions that can deform triaxially and is common to all nucleons. are complex parameters denoting the centroid of each single-particle wave function in phase space. The complex parameters and denote spin direction. The isospin component of each single-particle wave function is fixed as a proton () or a neutron (). Axial symmetry is not assumed.
II.2 Energy variation
The intrinsic wave functions of the GCM basis are obtained by energy variation with a constraint potential after projection onto eigen states of parity (),
[TABLE]
where and denote Hamiltonian and parity operators, respectively. The variational parameters are , , and (). The Gogny D1S force is used as an effective interaction. Variational calculations are performed by using the conjugate gradient method.
In order to obtain the various wave functions, constraint potentials with parabola form are added. In this work, two kinds of constraint potentials are used, which are for the matter quadrupole deformation parameter of the total system (-constraint) and intercluster distance. For intercluster distance, distance between and 31P () or between and 32S () is constrained.
II.3 Generator coordinate method
By using the GCM, optimized wave functions are superposed after parity and angular momentum projection,
[TABLE]
where is the parity and total angular momentum projection operator, and is a basis wave function. The is a kind of constraint potential (, , and ), and it is constrained to in the variational calculation. The integrals over the three Euler angles in the angular momentum projection operator are evaluated by numerical integration. The numbers of sampling points in the numerical integration for Euler angles , , and , respectively, are and for positive- and negative-parity states, respectively. Here the body-fixed -axis is determined by minimizing variance of , which is component of angular momentumTaniguchi (2016). The coefficients are determined by the Hill–Wheeler equation,
[TABLE]
III Results
Figure 1 shows energy curves as functions of the quadrupole deformation parameter obtained by energy variational calculation with the -constraint after parity projection. In both parity states, various structures are obtained. ( or ) denotes a particle-hole configuration, which shows that protons () or neutrons () are excited from -shell originated Nilsson orbits to the -shell originated ones. All obtained wave functions with the -constraint have no necked structures, which are called “deformed structures” following in this paper. In positive-parity state [Fig. 1(a)], the lowest energy state exist at in which a proton nor a neutron excite to the -shell. In largely deformed region, wave functions that have and configurations appear, which are totally and excited configurations, respectively. The local minima of and excited deformed states are at and 0.5, respectively. In negative-parity states [Fig. 1(b)], four configurations with , , , and are obtained on the -energy surface, which are totally , , , and excited configurations, respectively. The , , , and excited states have local minima at , 0.4, 0.6, and 0.7, respectively.
Figure 2 shows energies of -31P and -32S cluster structures as functions of intercluster distance and , respectively, which are obtained by energy variational calculations with constraints on and , respectively. By the energy variational calculations, two types of structures are obtained labeled S- and L-types. The difference of the types is in orientation of deformed larger clusters, 31P and 32S. In S- and L-type wave functions, smaller clusters, and , locate on the short and long axes of deformed larger clusters, respectively. For example, a 31P cluster is deformed, and an cluster is located on the short and long axes for S- and L-types as shown in Figs. 3(a) and (b), respectively. In Fig. 3(a) and (b), long axes of 31P are direction of vertical and horizontal axes, respectively, and clusters locate on the left side of the 31P clusters. It shows that the clusters locate on the short and long axes of 31P clusters for S- and L-types, respectively. In short distance region, energies of same type configurations are similar for -31P and -32S cluster structures as shown in Fig. 2. In positive-parity states, energies of S- and L-type structures with short intercluster distance are around and MeV, respectively, which are similar to energies of minimum energies of and excited configurations, respectively, on the -energy surface [Fig. 1(a)]. In negative-parity states, energies of S- and L-type structure with short intercluster distance are around and MeV, respectively, for both of -31P and -32S cluster structures, which are similar to those of minimum energies of and excited configurations, respectively, on the -energy surface [Fig. 1(b)]. In large distance region, energies S- and L-type wave functions of same cluster structures are similar, for both parities. Energies of -31P and -32S are and MeV, respectively, around Coulomb barrier, in which energies of -31P cluster structures are lower than those of -32S cluster structure. It reflects that threshold energy of P is lower than that of S. When intercluster distance is long, excitation energy of cluster structure is determined by threshold energy and Coulomb energy between clusters.
Figure 4 shows relative deformed harmonic oscillator quanta of -31P and -32S cluster structures as functions of intercluster distance, which are defined as
[TABLE]
is (proton) or (neutron), and shows that expectation values are summed up for protons or neutrons. and are coordinate and wave number operators, respectively. denotes harmonic oscillator quanta of the lowest allowed states of 35Cl, which are 24 and 26 for protons and neutrons, respectively.
In small intercluster distance region, values of -31P and -32S are similar for both parity and types. Positive-parity S- and L-type wave functions have and configurations, respectively, and negative-parity S- and L-type wave functions have and configurations, respectively. In details, the , , and configurations have the , , , and configurations, respectively. Energies of cluster structures with short intercluster distance region are similar to local minimum energies on the -energy curves (Fig. 1) for each corresponding particle-hole configuration.
Except for a proton part of positive-parity L-type -32S states, values as functions of intercluster distance and increase smoothly. It shows that internal wave functions of clusters do not change drastically. By superposition of wave functions with various intercluster distance, intercluster motion is taken into account. In cluster structures with short intercluster distance, particle-hole configurations are determined by deformation of clusters and antisymmetrization effects. For example, in the case of a negative-parity L-type -32S cluster structure, a 32S cluster is deformed and a long axis of the 32S is fully occupied up to the -shell. When a cluster approaches to the 32S cluster on the long axis, three nucleons of the cluster cannot go into the -shell due to antisymmetrization effects and are left to the -shell. It has a excited configuration. In the case of a negative-parity L-type -31P cluster structure, structure of 31P is almost the same as 32S but 31P cluster has one proton hole on the direction of long axis. When an cluster approach to the 31P cluster on the long axis, one proton in the cluster can go into the proton hole of the -shell and other three nucleons in the cluster are left to the -shell. It has also a excited configuration.
In contrast, values of positive-parity L-type -32S states decrease at and increase again for , which shows that internal wave functions of clusters change drastically at –6.0 fm. In , internal wave functions of clusters are similar to a Hartree-Fock state due to weak interaction between clusters. In , and 32S clusters are distorted and become larger value. It is because undistorted L-type -32S cluster structures with small intercluster distance can contain only negative-parity components. The -shell of an undistorted 32S cluster is fully occupied up to the -shell in direction of the long axis, so three nucleons of cluster should go into the -shell in an undistorted -32S cluster structure with small intercluster distance. As a result, total system of L-type undistorted -32S cluster structure with small intercluster cluster distance have configurations, which are negative-parity states.
Figure 5 shows level scheme of 35Cl obtained by the GCM. Various rotational bands labeled , , and bands, are obtained as well as low-lying states. The experimental states, the negative-parity SD band and candidates of parity-doublet partners, labeled SD, are also plotted as well as low-lying states. Dominant components of the and bands have excited configurations, and those of and bands have excited configurations. Other low-lying state have and excited configurations for positive- and negative-parity states, respectively. The obtained and states in the band are negative-parity yrast states. In the band, a state has the lowest energy due to a large decoupling parameter.
Figure 6 shows in-band B(E2; ) values for obtained rotational bands, where is a spin of an initial state. Experimental values for the negative-parity SD band and its candidates of parity partner states are also shown. In-band values of the band are consistent with those of the experimental negative-parity SD band. In-band values of the band are 40–60 W.u., and those of the experimental negative-parity SD band are W.u. and W.u. for and transitions, respectively.
Figure 7 shows excitation energies of obtained negative-parity states. States that contains large amounts of L-type -31P and -32S cluster structure components are stressed. Many states contain large amounts of L-type cluster structure components in high-lying states as well as low-lying bands. Higher-nodal states of L-type cluster structures (hn-L) are also obtained. In high-lying states, almost pure -31P and -32S cluster states are obtained, which are labeled “” and “”, respectively, following.
In order to analyze trend of excitation energies of the , hn-L, “”, and “” bands, excitation energies of those states are fitted to following function as shown in Fig. 7;
[TABLE]
where and denote excitation energy and spin, respectively, and and are fitting parameters to denote moment of inertia and energy for structure changes, respectively. Excitation energies of the “” band are approximately 10 MeV higher than those of the “” band.
Figure 8 shows -31P and -32S cluster structure components of states in the , hn-L, “”, and “” bands. For band, the L-type -31P and -32S cluster structure components are similar for all intercluster distance region [Fig. 8(a)]. In short distance region, overlaps are more than 0.8, which means that those wave functions are also dominant components of the band as well as excited deformed structure. With increasing intercluster distance, the overlaps are decreasing, but the overlaps have long tail distribution. Overlaps are still nonneglegible in surface region, . S-type components are not contained. In hn-L states, L-type -31P and -32S cluster structure components with –6 fm are dominated as shown in Fig. 8(b), and short distance components are suppressed. Figures 8(c) and (d) show cluster structure components in the “” and “” bands, respectively. The “” and “” states contain large amount of -31P and -32S cluster structure components, respectively, with large intercluster distance region. The “” and “” bands contain both L- and S-type components, and -31P and -32S cluster structure components are decoupled. Deformed structure components are rarely contained in the hn-L, “” and “” states.
IV Discussions
The experimental (8.31 MeV), (10.18 MeV), and (12.57 MeV) states, which are assigned to a negative-parity SD bandBisoi et al. (2013), correspond to members of the theoretical band. The theoretical and states in the band are negative-parity yrast states, and those in the experimental negative-parity SD band are also yrast states. In-band values of the theoretical band and the experimental negative-parity SD band are consistent (Fig. 6) although theoretical values are slightly overestimated. Dominant components of the band have excited configurations, which is consistent with a shell-model calculationBisoi et al. (2013).
In coupling of cluster structure components for relatively low energy states, particle-hole configuration of cluster wave functions with short intercluster distance are important rather than threshold energies. Members of the band contain similar amounts of L-type -31P and -32S cluster structure components with short intercluster distance region as shown in Fig. 8(a). Cluster and deformed structure components dominate in the that has same particle-hole configurations, which are excited configurations. Therefore, overlap between excited deformed structure and L-type cluster structures with short intercluster distance is large, and coupling and mixing of those structures are strong in the band. Configurations of cluster structure change gradually with increasing intercluster distance, and the band contain L-type cluster structure components up to tail region. The similar strength of -31P and -32S cluster coupling in the bands is inconsistent with the threshold energy rule because threshold energies of (6.99 MeV) and (17.94 MeV) are much different.
The hn-L states are generated by excitation of intercluster motion of cluster structure components in the band. Dominant components of the hn-L states are L-type -31P and -32S cluster structure components with and fm, respectively [Fig. 8(b)]. Compared to L-type -31P and -32S cluster structure components contained in the band, cluster structure components with short intercluster distance are suppressed in the hn-L states. The suppression is caused by orthogonalization to the band. Deformed structure components are rarely contained in the hn-L states. They show that hn-L states are generated by excitation of cluster structure components in the band.
For cluster structures in high-lying states, threshold energies reflect to excitation energies and correlation between clusters are weak. In negative-parity states, almost pure -31P and -32S cluster states are obtained, which are labeled “” and “” in Fig. 7, respectively. Excitation energies of -32S cluster states are approximately 10 MeV higher than those of -31P cluster states. The energy gap is similar to difference of threshold energies of and . Intercluster distance of dominant components of the “” and “” states are elongated to Coulomb barrier region [Figs. 8(c) and (d)] by orthogonalization to the hn-L states, which shows excitation of intercluster motion of cluster structure components in the hn-L states. In long intercluster distance region, interaction between clusters become weaker. Therefore, threshold energies strongly affect excitation energies, and coupling between clusters become weaker. Coupling between clusters in “” and “” states are weaker than that of bands and hn-L states. Mixing of L- and S-type cluster structure components in “” and “” states describes rotation of larger clusters due to weak correlation between clusters.
V Conclusions
-31P and -32S clustering in 35Cl has been investigated by using the AMD and GCM. The experimental negative-parity SD band is reproduced, and the SD band has excited configurations. The negative-parity SD band contains L-type -31P and -32S cluster structure components with short intercluster distance although threshold energies of and are much different. The mixing of L-type -31P and -32S cluster structure components in the negative-parity SD band are caused by coincidence of particle-hole configurations of cluster structure components with short intercluster distance and dominant excited deformed structures. In high-lying states, almost pure -32S and -31P states are obtained in negative-parity states. Threshold energies reflect to excitation energies of those almost pure cluster states. By excitation of intercluster motion, cluster structure components with long intercluster distance are dominated in high-lying cluster states, in which threshold energies reflect to total energies. In coupling of cluster structure components, particle-hole configurations in short intercluster distance region and threshold energies are important for low- and high-lying states, respectively.
Acknowledgements.
The author thanks to Dr. Kimura in Hokkaido University for fruitful discussions. This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number 25800124, Multidisciplinary Cooperative Research Program in CCS, University of Tsukuba, and The Hattori Hokokai Foundation Grant-in-Aid for Technological and Engineering Research.
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