D. Gambacurta, M. Grasso, and J. Engel

Phys. Rev. Lett. 125, 212501, 20 November 2020

We develop a fully self-consistent subtracted second random-phase approximation for charge-exchange processes with Skyrme energy-density functionals. As a first application, we study Gamow-Teller excitations in the doubly magic nucleus 48Ca, the lightest double-β emitter that could be used in an experiment, and in 78Ni, the single-beta-decay rate of which is known. The amount of Gamow-Teller strength below 20 or 30 MeV is considerably smaller than in other energy-density-functional calculations and agrees better with experiment in 48Ca, as does the beta-decay rate in 78Ni. These important results, obtained without ad hoc quenching factors, are due to the presence of two-particle–two-hole configurations. Their density progressively increases with excitation energy, leading to a long high-energy tail in the spectrum, a fact that may have implications for the computation of nuclear matrix elements for neutrinoless double-β decay in the same framework.

18/12/2020 15:21