Rearrangement potential in scattering state with interactions of chiral effective field theory

Although the importance of rearrangement effects in the description of ground state properties of nuclei has been recognized, the incorporation of them in a microscopic description of an optical-model potential has been limited. Extending the study of the microscopic optical-model potential [1] using interactions of chiral effective field theory, a second-order rearrangement potential in scattering state is calculated in nuclear matter. Pauli blocking effects in ladder correlations in a target nucleus by an incoming nucleon appear as a real and repulsive rearrangement potential. To estimate the rearrangement effect in a finite nucleus, a simple local density approximation is adopted. The second-order repulsive contribution is found about 5 MeV at normal density and smaller at low densities. While the depth of the optical-model potential becomes closer to the empirical one, the good account of nucleon-nucleus elastic scattering persists. The repulsive contribution can help improving the description of nucleus-nucleus scattering at larger angles.

[1]  M. Toyokawa et al., Prog. Theor. Exp. Phys. 2018, 023D03 (2018).