Structure of the doubly magic nuclei $^{208}$Pb and $^{266}$Pb from ab initio computations

TL;DR

This paper uses ab initio methods to study the structure of the superheavy, neutron-rich nucleus $^{266}$Pb, confirming its doubly magic nature and proximity to the neutron drip line through detailed computational analysis.

Contribution

The study applies ab initio computations with an effective field theory interaction to predict properties of $^{266}$Pb, a nucleus previously unexplored in detail.

Findings

$^{266}$Pb is confirmed to be doubly magic.

The $3^-$ excitation state is below the $2^+$ state by 2.6 MeV.

$^{266}$Pb is likely at the neutron drip line.

Abstract

Theoretical studies indicate that the superheavy neutron-rich nucleus $^{266}_{\ 82}$Pb$_{184}$ is doubly magic and at the neutron drip line. While its density distributions and single-particle energies have been computed, the structure of this nucleus is yet unknown. We perform ab initio computations of $^{266}$Pb using an interaction from an effective field theory of quantum chromodynamics tuned only on properties of nuclei with $A \leq 4$. We validate our theoretical framework by computing the first $2^+$ and $3^-$ excited states of $^{208}$Pb, finding agreement with experimental data. We confirm that $^{266}$Pb is doubly magic and show that its $3^-$ state, located below the $2^+$ state, exhibits an excitation gap of 2.6 MeV with respect to the ground state. Our calculations also suggest that this nucleus is at the neutron drip line.