Speaker
Description
In this work, we investigate cluster effective field theory (EFT) with alpha particles treated as elementary degrees of freedom. While halo EFT has been successfully used to describe systems consisting of a core and a few valence nucleons, an EFT tailored to nuclear clustering phenomena remains largely unexplored.
We discuss the necessary modifications to contact EFTs to account for the near-threshold $^8$Be resonance. Two low-energy constants are required at leading order, fitted to alpha–alpha scattering phase shifts. This framework enables a description of the first $0^+$ excited state of $^{12}$C (the Hoyle state) as a three-alpha resonance, as well as the near-threshold $0^+$ excited state of $^{16}$O.
Our approach provides a computationally tractable framework for describing alpha-clustered states in heavier nuclei and offers a promising route toward astrophysically relevant reactions such as $^{12}$C($\alpha$,$\gamma$)$^{16}$O, which remain challenging for state-of-the-art ab initio methods.
| Theoretical or experimental | Theoretical |
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