Neutron-Deuteron Scattering and Three-Body Interactions
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Digital Comprehensive Summaries of Uppsala Dissertations from the Faculty of Science and Technology 163 Neutron-Deuteron Scattering and Three-Body Interactions PHILIPPE MERMOD ACTA UNIVERSITATIS UPSALIENSIS ISSN 1651-6214 UPPSALA ISBN 91-554-6514-5 2006 urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-6739 ! " #$ #%%& '( ) * * * + , - . / , " +, #%%&, 0 1 2 -13 4 , 50 1 -6 6 7, 8 , &', 9 $# , , 4230 : 1))$1&) $1), 1 ** * 1 :) "; , - 1 ** . * . < * 1 , -. 1 . "//= 2>808 * - 2 , - ** * * . * , - * * . "//= . , 4 1 . 6. 2>808 . ?, @ . * . 2>808 . ? . . . 1 6 , / * 1 . * ** . * ** . ** < * , - . @ 1 . 1 , - ** * 1 * ** '%A * , - . * 1 * ** , 1 * @ ? ! " # $" % & '('" " )*+',(- " B + " #%%& 4220 &) 1&# $ 4230 : 1))$1&) $1) ( ((( 1&C': 5 (DD ,6,D E F ( ((( 1&C':7 To Kristina List of Papers This thesis is based on the following papers, which are referred to in the text by their Roman numerals. I J. Klug, J. Blomgren, A. Ataç, B. Bergenwall, A. Hildebrand, C. Johansson, P. Mermod, L. Nilsson, S. Pomp, U. Tippawan, K. Elmgren, N. Olsson, O. Jonsson, A.V. Prokofiev, P.-U. Renberg, P. Nadel-Turonski, S. Dangtip, P. Phansuke, M. Österlund, C. Le Brun, J.F. Lecolley, F.R. Lecolley, M. Louvel, N. Marie-Noury, C. Schweitzer, Ph. Eudes, F. Haddad, C. Lebrun, A.J. Koning, and X. Ledoux, "Elastic neutron scattering at 96 MeV from 12C and 208Pb", Phys. Rev. C 68, 064605 (2003). II C. Johansson, J. Blomgren, A. Ataç, B. Bergenwall, S. Dangtip, K. Elmgren, A. Hildebrand, O. Jonsson, J. Klug, P. Mermod, P. Nadel-Turonski, L. Nilsson, N. Olsson, S. Pomp, A.V. Prokofiev, P.-U. Renberg, U. Tippawan, and M. Österlund, "Forward-angle neutron-proton scattering at 96 MeV", Phys. Rev. C 71, 024002 (2005). III P. Mermod, J. Blomgren, B. Bergenwall, A. Hildebrand, C. Johansson, J. Klug, L. Nilsson, N. Olsson, M. Österlund, S. Pomp, U. Tippawan, O. Jonsson, A. Prokofiev, P.-U. Renberg, P. Nadel-Turonski, Y. Maeda, H. Sakai, and A. Tamii, "Search for three-body force effects in neutron-deuteron scattering at 95 MeV", Phys. Lett. B597, 243 (2004). IV P. Mermod, J. Blomgren, A. Hildebrand, C. Johansson, J. Klug, M. Österlund, S. Pomp, U. Tippawan, B. Bergenwall, L. Nilsson, N. Olsson, O. Jonsson, A. Prokofiev, P.-U. Renberg, P. Nadel-Turonski, Y. Maeda, H. Sakai, and A. Tamii, "Evidence of three-body force effects in neutron-deuteron scattering at 95 MeV", Phys. Rev. C 72, 061002(R) (2005). V P. Mermod, J. Blomgren, B. Bergenwall, C. Johansson, J. Klug, L. Nilsson, N. Olsson, A. Öhrn, M. Österlund, S. Pomp, U. Tippawan, P. Nadel-Turonski, O. Jonsson, A. Prokofiev, P.-U. v Renberg, Y. Maeda, H. Sakai, A. Tamii, K. Amos, R. Crespo, and A. Moro, "95 MeV neutron scattering on hydrogen, deuterium, carbon and oxygen", submitted to Phys. Rev. C (2006). Reprints were made with permission from the publishers. vi Contents 1 Introduction . 1 1.1 Fundamental physics . 1 1.2 Nuclear applications . 2 1.3 The present work . 3 2 Examples of three-body forces . 5 2.1 Emotional interactions . 5 2.2 Nuclear interactions . 6 2.3 Strong interactions . 8 2.4 Electromagnetic interactions . 9 2.5 Gravitational interactions . 10 3 Theory of nuclear interactions . 11 3.1 Nucleon-nucleon potentials . 11 3.2 From nucleons to nuclei . 12 3.3 Many-body systems . 13 3.4 The off-shell problem . 13 3.5 Three-nucleon forces and effective field theories . 14 4 Search for three-nucleon forces . 17 4.1 Three-nucleon force observables . 17 4.2 Neutron-deuteron scattering experiments at TSL . 19 4.3 Data analysis . 23 4.4 Results . 24 5 Conclusions and outlook . 31 6 Acknowledgements . 33 7 Summary in Swedish . 35 8 Bibliography . 37 vii 1. Introduction Like a coin, physics has two sides. Physics research is driven by curiosity about nature (neophile side) as well as practical prospects (technophile side). This coin is in a state of constant flipping, since applications often motivate−and finance−fundamental research in particular fields, and theory can be used to predict quantities or phenomena which can lead to new or improved technologies. The present thesis is a good example of this duality. The neutron-deuteron scattering experiments on which it is based were designed to investigate fun- damental interactions between three nucleons, but at the same time the in- formation extracted from the experimental data may be useful for medical applications, and the work was carried out as part of a program on studies of neutron-induced nuclear reactions of importance for incineration of nuclear waste. 1.1 Fundamental physics All known interactions between physical objects can be interpreted in terms of four1 fundamental interactions: the electromagnetic interaction, the weak in- teraction, the strong interaction, and the gravitational interaction. Very often, the notion of force−which is what causes a change in an object−is mixed up with the notion of interaction since a force is necessarily due to an interaction (with another object). In this thesis, we are interested about the nuclear force, which is a manifestation of the strong interaction described phenomenolog- ically as the effective interaction between nucleons (nucleons can be either protons or neutrons). Most theories of fundamental interactions involve hypothetically funda- mental objects called elementary particles. In this approach, in principle, a total knowledge of the existence, properties and interactions of elementary particles allows to describe all physical phenomena: if the elementary parti- cles are really fundamental, then they are the building blocks of every larger structure, and thus all structures must obey some complex (in practice, usu- 1 Traditionally, modern physicists have counted four interactions; however, electromagnetism and the weak interaction can be shown to be two aspects of a single electroweak interaction, and somewhat more speculatively, the electroweak interaction and the strong interaction can be combined using grand unified theories. How to combine the fourth interaction, gravity, with the other three is a topic of research in quantum gravity. 1 ally too complex to be computed exactly by human means) combination of the fundamental laws governing elementary particle dynamics. In quantum field theories, specific elementary particles (the gauge fields) act as mediators be- tween other elementary particles. This exchange mechanism is used as a basis for the description of interactions between pairs of elementary particles. Three-body (as well as four-body, five-body, etc.) interactions are often overlooked in the description of physical systems, probably because, in na- ture, they tend to be insignificant compared to two-body (pairwise) interac- tions. As we will see in Chapter 2, quantum field theories of, e.g., electromag- netic and strong interactions predict new types of interactions which arise as soon as more than two objects are involved. These three-body interactions can be viewed as the coupling between the exchange particles themselves while they are mediating the interaction between the real objects. The present thesis primarily concerns experimental studies of three-body nuclear forces in neutron-deuteron scattering at 95 MeV. The primary aim is to provide data in the three-nucleon system for testing the models of three- nucleon forces. The work is put in a broader perspective by considering ex- amples of three-body forces in other areas of physics. 1.2 Nuclear applications There are a number of new applications under development where neutrons of higher energies than in the traditional applications (nuclear power and nuclear weapons) play a significant role. The most important are transmutation of nu- clear waste [1], medical treatment of tumors with fast neutrons [2], and the mitigation of single-event effects in electronics [3]. These applications would benefit from refinements of nuclear models, especially for neutron-induced nuclear reactions up to 1 GeV. None of these applications require precise data on neutron-deuteron scat- tering for their further development in a short-time perspective. In a longer term and a broader physics perspective, however, such data could be of large importance. It is an ultimate goal since long in nuclear physics to be able to describe heavy nuclei from simple fundamental forces only. At present, this goal is far from being fulfilled. In nuclear energy applications, precise knowl- edge of heavy nuclei, like uranium and plutonium, is required, but for these nuclei ab initio theories are not in a state where cross section predictions can meet the requirements for technological applications. Advanced nuclear the- ory can be used to describe some particularly favorable cases, but for most nuclei, specific models are constructed phenomenologically. The present work represents a step in the direction to establish a more fun- damental treatment in the realm of applied nuclear physics. It has been es- tablished that nuclear theory based only on the nucleon-nucleon (two-body) interaction fail to describe even such a basic quantity as the binding energy 2 of A = 3 nuclei. With the introduction of three-nucleon forces, these prob- lems