Neutron drop trapped in axially deformed external fields

TL;DR

This paper investigates how neutrons in a trap respond to anisotropic external fields, revealing shape changes and orbital preferences, with implications for nuclear physics and quantum many-body systems.

Contribution

It introduces a study of neutron drops in axially deformed harmonic oscillator fields, highlighting shape transitions and orbital behaviors under varying potential strengths.

Findings

Neutron shape transitions from spherical to oblate or prolate.

Neutron prefers different orbitals depending on potential anisotropy.

Binding fails when potential strength in one direction vanishes.

Abstract

The neutron drop is firstly investigated in an axially symmetric harmonic oscillator (ASHO) field, whose potential strengths of different directions can be controlled artificially. The shape of the neutron drop will change from spherical to oblate or prolate according to the anisotropy of the external field. With the potential strength increasing in the axial direction, the neutron prefers to occupy the orbital perpendicular to the symmetry axis. On the contrary, the neutron likes to stay in the orbital parallel to the symmetry axis when the potential strength increases in the radial direction. Meanwhile, when the potential strength of one direction disappears, the neutron drop cannot bind together. These investigations are not only helpful to simulate the properties of neutrons in finite nuclei but also provide the theoretical predictions to the future artificial operations on the nuclei like the ultracold atom system, for a deeper realization of quantum many-body systems.