Quartet correlations in N = Z nuclei induced by realistic two-body interactions

Two variational quartet models previously employed in a treatment of pairing forces are extended to the case of a general two-body interaction. One model approximates the nuclear states as a condensate of identical quartets with angular momentum J = 0 and isospin T = 0 while the other let these quartets to be all different from each other. With these models we investigate the role of alpha-like quartet correlations both in the ground state and in the lowest J = 0, T = 0 excited states of even-even N = Z nuclei in the sd-shell. We show that the ground-state correlations of these nuclei can be described to a good extent in terms of a condensate of alpha-like quartets. This turns out to be especially the case for the nucleus S-32 for which the overlap between this condensate and the shell model wave function is found close to one. In the same nucleus, a similar overlap is found also in the case of the first excited 0(+) state. No clear correspondence is observed instead between the second excited states of the quartet models and the shell model eigenstates in all the cases examined.