Ground state properties of a weakly-bound three-body halo system

Abstract

In this dissertation, we investigate the role of the nucleon-nucleon (nn) and threebody interactions on the ground-state structure of the 22C! 20C + n + n borromean system. We start by outlining the theoretical formulation of a three-body bound-state problems, starting with the fundamentals of two-body bound and scattering states. The different steps leading to the transformation of the three-body Schrödinger equation into a one-dimensional set of coupled differential equations are shown. These equations are numerically solved to obtain the three-body groundstate binding energy. The analysis of the numerical results show that even in the absence of the nn interaction, the system remains bound, provided the three-body interaction becomes more attractive. Similarly, the system remains bound in the absence of the three-body interaction, provided the nn interaction becomes more attractive. The ground-state binding energy is also found to be a continuous function of the strengths and ranges of both interactions, meaning that when these parameters increase, the binding energy increases as well, making the system to be more compact. The study presented in this dissertation highlights the interplay of the nn and three-body interactions in the dynamics of the three-body neutron-halo system. These results have been published in the Brazilian Journal of Physics (2022) 52, 193. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13538-022-01194-5. Using the ground-state binding energy, various thermodynamic properties such as the mean energy, the free energy, the entropy as well as the specific heat capacity of this system are also calculated.