Bochum 1998 – scientific programme

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HK: Hadronen und Kerne

HK 22: Plenar

HK 22.2: Talk

Tuesday, March 17, 1998, 09:45–10:30, P

Shell Model Monte Carlo applications in nuclear structure and astrophysics — •K. Langanke — University of Aarhus

The recently developed Shell Model Monte Carlo (SMMC) approach describes the nucleus by a canonical ensemble at finite temperature. Since the Monte Carlo techniques avoid an explicit enumeration of the many-body states, they can be used in model spaces far larger than those accessible to conventional methods. The Monte Carlo results are in principle an exact solution to the interacting shell model and are in practice subject only to controllable sampling and discretization errors. As a disadvantage compared to conventional diagonalization methods, the SMMC approach cannot study detailed spectroscopy.

The SMMC method has allowed progress in the calculation and understanding of many properties of nuclei in ground states and at finite temperature. These include Gamow-Teller strength distributions, various pairing correlations and level densities, all of which are quite important in astrophysical scenarios like supernova collapse or explosive nucleosynthesis.

The talk will give an introduction to the SMMC method and will then discuss its application to nuclear structure and its relevance in nuclear astrophysics.