Tensor Forces and the Ground-State Structure of Nuclei

Abstract

Two-nucleon momentum distributions are calculated for the ground states of nuclei with mass number $A\le 8$, using variational Monte Carlo wave functions derived from a realistic Hamiltonian with two- and three-nucleon potentials. The momentum distribution of $np$ pairs is found to be much larger than that of $pp$ pairs for values of the relative momentum in the range (300--600) MeV/c and vanishing total momentum. This order of magnitude difference is seen in all nuclei considered and has a universal character originating from the tensor components present in any realistic nucleon-nucleon potential. The correlations induced by the tensor force strongly influence the structure of $np$ pairs, which are predominantly in deuteron-like states, while they are ineffective for $pp$ pairs, which are mostly in ${}^1$S${}_0$ states. These features should be easily observable in two-nucleon knock-out processes, such as $A(e,e^{\prime }np)$ and $A(e,e^{\prime }pp)$.

4 pages including 3 figures

References in corpus (2)

• Evidence for the Strong Dominance of Proton-Neutron Correlations in Nuclei
• Pair counting, pion-exchange forces, and the structure of light nuclei

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