Level densities of heavy nuclei in the shell model Monte Carlo approach

¹ Center for Theoretical Physics, Sloane Physics Laboratory, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06520, USA
² Department of Physics, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98915, USA
³ Institute for Nuclear Theory, Box 351560, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98915, USA
⁴ Department of Physics, Graduate School of Science, Chiba University, Inage, Chiba 263-8522, Japan
⁵ Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences, Kadir Has University, Istanbul 34083, Turkey

^a e-mail: yoram.alhassid@yale.edu

Published online: 21 June 2016

Abstract

Nuclear level densities are necessary input to the Hauser-Feshbach theory of compound nuclear reactions. However, the microscopic calculation of level densities in the presence of correlations is a challenging many-body problem. The configurationinteraction shell model provides a suitable framework for the inclusion of correlations and shell effects, but the large dimensionality of the many-particle model space has limited its application in heavy nuclei. The shell model Monte Carlo method enables calculations in spaces that are many orders of magnitude larger than spaces that can be treated by conventional diagonalization methods and has proven to be a powerful tool in the microscopic calculation of level densities. We discuss recent applications of the method in heavy nuclei.