A shell-model study of calcium isotopes towards their drip line

TL;DR

This study uses the nuclear shell model with chiral potentials to predict the calcium isotopes' drip line, successfully matching experimental data up to 56Ca and extending predictions to 70Ca, highlighting the importance of model space choices.

Contribution

It introduces a shell-model approach with chiral two- and three-body forces to accurately predict calcium isotopes' drip line location.

Findings

Two-neutron separation energies match experiment up to 56Ca.

No two-neutron emission signs until 70Ca.

Model space choice significantly affects drip line predictions.

Abstract

We report in this paper a study in terms of the nuclear shell model about the location of the calcium isotopes drip line. The starting point is considering the realistic two-body potential derived by Entem and Machleidt within chiral perturbation theory at next-to-next-to-next-to-leading order (N3LO), as well as a chiral three-body force at next-to-next-to-leading order (N2LO) whose structure and low-energy constants are consistent with the two-body potential. Then we construct the effective single-particle energies and residual interaction needed to diagonalize the shell-model Hamiltonian. The calculated two-neutron separation energies agree nicely with experiment until 56Ca, which is the heaviest isotope whose mass has been measured, and do not show any sign of two-neutron emission until 70Ca. We discuss the role of the choice of the model space in determining the neutron drip line, and also the dependence of the results on the parameters of the shell-model Hamiltonian.