Alpha-Particle Monopole Form Factors with Ab Initio No-Core Shell Model

TL;DR

This paper uses the ab initio no-core shell model to calculate alpha-particle monopole form factors, comparing results with experimental data and other theoretical approaches, highlighting the need for further investigation.

Contribution

It provides the first ab initio calculations of alpha-particle monopole form factors with modern nuclear forces, demonstrating good convergence and comparison with other advanced methods.

Findings

Good convergence of form factors with basis size

Results closely match hyperspherical harmonic calculations

Discrepancies with experimental data suggest further research needed

Abstract

The state-of-the-art ab initio nuclear many-body approaches with modern nuclear forces are challenged by the recent experimental measurement of the monopole form factor of the $0^+_1\rightarrow 0^+_2$ transition in the $\alpha$ particle [Kegel et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 130, 152502 (2023)]. We investigate the elastic and inelastic $0^+_1\rightarrow 0^+_2$ transition form factors using the ab initio no-core shell model (NCSM). We observe a good convergence of both form factors with respect to the basis size employing the Daejeon16 nucleon-nucleon ($NN$) interaction. Our NCSM results are very close to the effective interaction hyperspherical harmonic calculations using $NN$ plus three-nucleon interactions based on the chiral effective field theory which take into account the continuum effects via the Lorentz integral transform. The significant difference between the ab initio results with various modern nuclear interactions and of some of them with the recent experimental data provides motivations for deeper investigation of this observable.