Construction of continuous collective energy landscapes for large amplitude nuclear many-body problems

TL;DR

This paper introduces a method to construct continuous energy landscapes for large amplitude nuclear many-body problems, enabling precise analysis of fission pathways and state connections in quantum systems.

Contribution

The authors develop a novel approach combining the variational principle with state overlap constraints to generate continuous energy surfaces in nuclear many-body systems.

Findings

Successfully mapped fission pathways in $^{240}$Pu

Identified clear scission signatures with neutron excess

Potential to connect arbitrary quantum states

Abstract

Several protocols are proposed to build continuous energy surfaces of many-body quantum systems, regarding both energy and states. The standard variational principle is augmented with constraints on state overlap, ensuring arbitrary precision on continuity. As an illustration, the lowest energy and excited state paths relevant for the $^{240}$Pu asymmetric fission are studied. The scission is clearly signed, with a neutron excess in the neck, the ultimate glue before its rupture. Our approach can potentially connect any couple of Hilbert space states, which opens up new horizons for various applications.