Neutron elastic scattering on calcium isotopes from chiral nuclear optical potentials

TL;DR

This paper develops a microscopic model for neutron scattering on calcium isotopes using chiral nuclear forces, successfully reproducing many experimental scattering observables up to 200 MeV.

Contribution

It introduces a new approach to derive neutron-nucleus optical potentials from chiral forces within many-body perturbation theory and local density approximation.

Findings

Microscopic potentials reproduce elastic scattering data well.

Total cross sections are overestimated at high energies.

The model aligns with phenomenological potentials up to 200 MeV.

Abstract

We formulate microscopic neutron-nucleus optical potentials from many-body perturbation theory based on chiral two- and three-body forces. The neutron self energy is first calculated in homogeneous matter to second order in perturbation theory, which gives the central real and imaginary terms of the optical potential. The real spin-orbit term is calculated separately from the density matrix expansion using the same chiral interaction as in the self energy. Finally, the full neutron-nucleus optical potential is derived within the improved local density approximation utilizing mean field models consistent with the chiral nuclear force employed. We compare the results of the microscopic calculations to phenomenological models and experimental data up to projectile energies of $E = 200$ MeV. Experimental elastic differential scattering cross sections and vector analyzing powers are generally well reproduced by the chiral optical potential, but we find that total cross sections are overestimated at high energies.