Toward ab initio charge symmetry breaking in nuclear energy density functionals

We propose a new approach to determine the strength of the charge symmetry breaking (CSB) term in the framework of nuclear density functional theory. It is shown that once ab initio calculations are available including accurate description of isospin symmetry breaking terms in medium and heavy nuclei, the mass difference of mirror nuclei as well as the neutron-skin thickness of doubly-closed-shell nuclei can be used to constrain the strength of the CSB interaction with an uncertainty less than 6%, separately from other isospin symmetry breaking forces. This method opens a new vista of ab initio nuclear energy density functionals.

Automated summary

This article proposes a new approach to determine the strength of the charge symmetry breaking term in nuclear density functional theory. It shows that by using the mass difference of mirror nuclei and the neutron-skin thickness of doubly-closed-shell nuclei, the strength of the CSB interaction can be constrained separately from other isospin symmetry breaking forces with an uncertainty of less than 6%.