Ab initio study of the halo structure in $^{11}$Be

TL;DR

This study uses advanced ab initio nuclear lattice methods to accurately model the halo structure of $^{11}$Be, capturing its unique parity inversion and extended neutron distribution.

Contribution

It introduces a novel combination of wavefunction matching and pinhole algorithms within nuclear lattice EFT to successfully reproduce halo features and analyze cluster structures.

Findings

Reproduces the ground-state parity inversion of $^{11}$Be.

Identifies a two-cluster structure and $\sigma$ orbital occupation in $^{11}$Be.

Shows enhanced prolate deformation and diffuse neutron tail in $^{11}$Be.

Abstract

We present an ab initio study of the one-neutron halo nucleus $^{11}$Be using nuclear lattice effective field theory with high-fidelity chiral interactions at N3LO. By employing the wavefunction matching method to mitigate the sign problem and the pinhole algorithm to sample many-body correlations, we successfully reproduce the ground-state parity inversion and the extended matter radius characteristic of the halo structure. We analyze the intrinsic density distributions and geometric shapes of $^{11}$Be in comparison with the core nucleus $^{10}$Be. Our results reveal a prominent two-cluster structure in both nuclei and the occupation of the $\sigma$ molecular orbital by the valence neutron in $^{11}$Be. It enhances the prolate deformation as well as the diffuse neutron tail, distinct from the $\pi$-orbital occupation observed in the $^{10}$Be ground state.