Study of the deformed halo nucleus 31Ne with Glauber model based on microscopic self-consistent structures

The exotic deformed nucleus Ne-31 is studied with an approach that combines self-consistent structure and reaction theories. The deformed relativistic Hartree-Bogoliubov theory in continuum (DRHBc) is utilized to demonstrate that deformation and pairing correlations give rise to a halo structure with a large-amplitude p-wave configuration in Ne-31. Then the valence nucleon wave functions and angle-averaged density distributions of Ne-30 from this theory are used as input for the Glauber reaction model to study the observables of neutron-rich neon isotopes to search halo signatures. With NL1 effective interaction, our predictions of the reaction cross sections for these exotic neon isotopes on a carbon target can better reproduce the experimental data than those from the relativistic mean field model for a spherical shape with resonances and pairing correlation contributions, and are roughly 3.3% (similar to 50 mb) larger than those with Gaussian function-fitted densities of the core nuclei. The calculated one-neutron removal cross section at 240 MeV/nucleon, and the inclusive longitudinal momentum distribution of the Ne-30 residues from the Ne-31 breakup reaction are largely improved over previous theoretical predictions and agree well with data. These reaction evaluations indicate a dilute density distribution in coordinate space and are a canonical signature of a halo structure. Moreover, our predictions with the NL3 and PK1 effective interactions give slightly better descriptions of reaction observables for exotic neon isotopes.

Automated summary

This study combines self-consistent structure and reaction theories to investigate the exotic deformed nucleus Ne-31. The results demonstrate that deformation and pairing correlations lead to a halo structure in Ne-31. By using the predicted wave functions and density distributions, the observables of neutron-rich neon isotopes were studied, showing good agreement with experimental data.