Muon capture in nuclei: an ab initio approach based on quantum Monte Carlo methods

Abstract

An ab initio quantum Monte Carlo method is introduced for calculating total rates of muon weak capture in light nuclei with mass number $A\le 12$. As a first application of the method, we perform a calculation of the rate in ${}^4$He in a dynamical framework based on realistic two- and three-nucleon interactions and realistic nuclear charge-changing weak currents. The currents include one- and two-body terms induced by $\pi$- and $\rho$-meson exchange, and $N$-to-$\Delta$ excitation, and are constrained to reproduce the empirical value of the Gamow-Teller matrix element in tritium. We investigate the sensitivity of theoretical predictions to current parametrizations of the nucleon axial and induced pseudoscalar form factors as well as to two-body contributions in the weak currents. The large uncertainties in the measured values obtained from bubble-chamber experiments (carried out over 50 years ago) prevent us from drawing any definite conclusions.

6 pages, 1 figure

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Cited by in corpus (11)

• Local nucleon-nucleon and three-nucleon interactions within chiral effective field theory
• Nuclear Currents in Chiral Effective Field Theory
• Ab initio study of $({\mathbf{\nu }}_{\mathbf{\ell }},{\mathbf{\ell }}^{-})$ and $({\overline{\mathbf{\nu }}}_{\mathbf{\ell }},{\mathbf{\ell }}^{+})$ inclusive scattering in ${}^{12}$C: confronting the MiniBooNE and T2K CCQE data
• Machine learning-based inversion of nuclear responses
• Electroweak pion-production on nuclei within the extended factorization scheme
• Ab initio calculation of muon capture on ${}^{24}$Mg
• Partial muon capture rates in $A=3$ and $A=6$ nuclei with chiral effective field theory
• Muon Capture on ${}^6$Li, ${}^{12}$C, and ${}^{16}$O from $AbInitio$ Nuclear Theory
• Summary of Workshop on Common Neutrino Event Generator Tools
• Nuclear Many-Body Effect on Particle Emissions Following Muon Capture on ${}^{28}$Si and ${}^{40}$Ca
• Local two- and three-nucleon chiral interactions