Klos, Philipp (2018)
Few-neutron systems and WIMP-nucleus interactions from chiral effective field theory.
Technische Universität Darmstadt
Ph.D. Thesis, Primary publication
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Item Type: | Ph.D. Thesis | ||||
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Type of entry: | Primary publication | ||||
Title: | Few-neutron systems and WIMP-nucleus interactions from chiral effective field theory | ||||
Language: | English | ||||
Referees: | Schwenk, Prof. Ph.D Achim ; Hammer, Prof. Dr. Hans-Werner | ||||
Date: | 2018 | ||||
Place of Publication: | Darmstadt | ||||
Date of oral examination: | 15 October 2018 | ||||
Abstract: | The building blocks of atomic nuclei, protons and neutrons, interact via the strong force. The fundamental theory of the strong interaction, quantum chromodynamics (QCD), is non-perturbative at the energy scales relevant for nuclear physics. Calculations of low-energy observables based directly on QCD thus present a challenge. Effective field theories (EFTs) of QCD, such as chiral EFT, provide an alternative pathway to describe the nuclear force and the interaction of nuclei with external particles. In this thesis, chiral EFT is applied to studies of few-neutron systems as well as in calculations of nuclear structure factors relevant for dark matter searches. Currently, only lattice QCD calculations in finite volume allow for direct solutions of QCD at low energies. Matching results obtained in chiral EFT to lattice QCD calculations thus presents a promising avenue for the construction of nuclear forces directly based on QCD. This becomes especially relevant in the few-neutron sector, which is challenging to access experimentally so that input for effective field theories is scarce. In this thesis, we take first steps in this direction by performing quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) calculations of the ground and first excited states of two neutrons in finite volume. We analyze the finite-volume effects that are crucial for the determination of infinite-volume observables from finite-volume data. The interest in few-neutron states also stems from a recent measurement of a possible tetraneutron resonance. We present QMC calculations of three and four neutrons interacting via chiral EFT forces confined in an external potential well. By extrapolating to the physical case of vanishing external-potential strength, we obtain a quantitative estimate of possible three- and four neutron resonance energies. Our results suggest that a three-neutron resonance, if it exists, may be lower in energy than a tetraneutron resonance. Furthermore, we present an alternative approach to the extraction of resonance properties based on the volume dependence of the calculated discrete energy spectra in finite volume. Using a discrete variable representation based on plane waves, we show for both bosonic and fermionic systems of up to four particles that multi-body resonances appear as avoided level crossings in the energy spectra. Our results establish few-body finite-volume calculations as a new tool to study few-body resonances. The analysis of dark matter direct detection experiments depends crucially on nuclear structure factors that describe the coupling of proposed dark matter particles (WIMPs) to the target nuclei used in such searches. We present a chiral power counting scheme for operators describing various types of WIMP-nucleon interactions including both nuclear one- and two-body currents. In a second step, we evaluate the corresponding structure factors for different target nuclei and determine the dominant corrections to the standard spin-independent channel. Based on chiral EFT and nuclear structure effects, we propose an extension of the standard analysis applied in experimental searches. In addition, we find that two-body contributions help improve limits on the WIMP-nucleon cross section based on collider searches of Higgs-mediated dark-matter interactions. Finally, we investigate to what extent current and planned experiments are able to distinguish the subdominant WIMP-nucleon interaction channels from the standard spin-independent interaction based on their momentum dependence. |
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URN: | urn:nbn:de:tuda-tuprints-81562 | ||||
Classification DDC: | 500 Science and mathematics > 530 Physics | ||||
Divisions: | 05 Department of Physics > Institute of Nuclear Physics 05 Department of Physics > Institute of Nuclear Physics > Theoretische Kernphysik |
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Date Deposited: | 09 Nov 2018 14:08 | ||||
Last Modified: | 09 Nov 2018 14:08 | ||||
URI: | https://tuprints.ulb.tu-darmstadt.de/id/eprint/8156 | ||||
PPN: | 438657470 | ||||
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