Realistic shell model for ordinary muon capture of sd-shell nuclei

TL;DR

This paper introduces a realistic shell model approach to study ordinary muon capture in sd-shell nuclei, aiming to improve predictions of nuclear matrix elements relevant for neutrinoless double-beta decay.

Contribution

First application of the realistic shell model to muon capture in sd-shell nuclei using unadjusted effective interactions and operators.

Findings

Partial capture rates calculated and compared with experimental data.

Spectroscopic properties of nuclei analyzed to validate the model.

Assessment of the model's reliability for predicting unmeasured observables.

Abstract

We report about a study of the ordinary muon capture in nuclei belonging to the sd shell, an electroweak process that occurs with exchange momenta far larger than ordinary beta decays (approximately 100 MeV). Such a characteristic places this transition in an energy range that is consistent with the neutrinoless double-beta decay, and represents an interesting test for nuclear models to support their predictions of the nuclear matrix elements for such an unobserved process. For the first time, the calculations are carried out within the realistic shell model (RSM), namely employing effective shell-model Hamiltonians and decay operators derived from realistic nuclear forces, without resorting to any empirical adjustment of the coupling constants. This is a chapter of a research program that is aimed to assess the realistic shell model in reproducing the observables related to electroweak processes in nuclei, and then to evaluate the reliability of nuclear matrix elements for the neutrinoless double-beta decay that are calculated within this approach. We calculate the partial capture rates for many nuclear systems in the sd-shell region, as well as their spectroscopic properties, and compare the results with the available experimental counterparts. Such a comparison tests the relevance of a microscopic approach to the renormalization of transition operators to reproduce data and provide solid predictions of unknown observables.