Partial muon capture rates in $A=3$ and $A=6$ nuclei with chiral effective field theory

Abstract

Searches for neutrinoless-double beta decay rates are crucial in addressing questions within fundamental symmetries and neutrino physics. The rates of these decays depend not only on unknown parameters associated with neutrinos, but also on nuclear properties. In order to reliably extract information about the neutrino, one needs an accurate treatment of the complex many-body dynamics of the nucleus. Neutrinoless-double beta decays take place at momentum transfers on the order of 100 MeV/$c$ and require both nuclear electroweak vector and axial current matrix elements. Muon capture, a process in the same momentum transfer regime, has readily available experimental data to validate these currents. In this work, we present results of {\it ab initio} calculations of partial muon capture rates for ${}^3$He and ${}^6$Li nuclei using variational and Green's Function Monte Carlo computational methods. We estimate the impact of the three-nucleon interactions, the cutoffs used to regularize two-nucleon ($2N$) interactions, and the energy range of $2N$ scattering data used to fit these interactions.

arXiv comment10 pages, 5 figures including supplemental material; Re-analyzed GFMC ${}^3$He muon capture with updated wave functions, conclusions unchanged

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• Ab initio calculation of the $\beta$ decay spectrum of ${}^6$He
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• Recent progress in the electroweak structure of light nuclei using quantum Monte Carlo methods
• Muon Capture on ${}^6$Li, ${}^{12}$C, and ${}^{16}$O from $AbInitio$ Nuclear Theory
• Muon capture on deuteron using local chiral potentials
• Longitudinal form factors of $A\le 10$ nuclei in a chiral effective field theory approach
• The Role of Ab Initio Beta-Decay Calculations in Light Nuclei for Probes of Physics Beyond the Standard Model
• Two-body currents at finite momentum transfer and applications to M1 transitions