text:
# Short-Range Correlations in Nuclear Matter at Finite Temperatures and High Densities

## 1 Introduction

An interesting but only partially explored problem of nuclear many-body theory are contributions from short-range correlations to the binding properties of nuclear matter and finite nuclei. Of particular interest for various regions of nuclear physics ranging from heavy ion collisions to the physics of neutron star formation is the density and temperature dependence of short-range correlations in nuclear matter. In heavy ion collisions like those planned at the Compressed Baryonic Matter (CBM) facility at GSI densities of several times the nuclear matter saturation density $`\rho _0=0.16/\mathrm{fm}^3`$ are reached. Such conditions are also encountered in astrophysical scenarios. When a neutron star is formed in a supernova explosion temperatures of several tens of MeV and densities far beyond normal nuclear matter density arise. The neutrinos emitted from the nascent neutron star are an important signal that gives information about the ongoing cooling processes. Nucleon correlations, however, affect directly the neutrino opacity in dense nuclear matter. The neutrino cross sections can be significantly reduced due to the presence of correlations in the medium . Therefore it is important to take nucleon correlations into account when interpreting the neutrino spectra.

So far there has been no consistent investigation of the properties of the nucleon spectral function that covers the full temperature and density range of those scenarios. In this work we extend the approach to short-range correlations in nuclear matter presented initially in  to the more general cases of arbitrary temperatures and densities. Using direct relations between correlation functions and collision integrals a simple but fully self-consistent model for calculating the nucleon spectral function in an iterative procedure was constructed in refs. . The former calculations, however, have been restricted to zero temperature and normal nuclear matter density. The previously obtained results are in surprisingly good agreement with much more sophisticated and numerically extremely involved, ”state-of-the-art” calculations utilizing the full machinery of modern nuclear many-body theory . In particular, the significant population of high-momentum states in the nucleon momentum distribution – which is interpreted as an overall measure for short-range correlations – is described rather well.

In this paper, we reconsider this model and extend it to finite temperatures and densities beyond the nuclear matter equilibrium point. Different from  this requires a reliable description of the static mean-field self-energy which in the former work could most conveniently be absorbed into a redefinition of the chemical potential. In the present case an explicit treatment of the density and momentum dependence of the mean-field self-energy is necessary since the chemical potential is temperature and density dependent. Calculations for the equation of state for dense matter and finite temperatures have been made using microscopic Hamiltonians, see e.g. . In our model we incorporate the static properties of the mean-field by an empirical, Skyrme-type energy density functional . By this choice thermodynamical consistency is also ensured by fulfilling the Hugenholtz-van Hove theorem  at mean-field level. This approach gives rise to a potential that is independent of energy but depends on momentum, temperature, and density. However, because of the Skyrme-typical restriction to terms of at most quadratic order in the single particle momenta the momentum dependence can be re-expressed immediately by an effective mass in the kinetic energy term.

Calculations similar to ours have been done by Alvarez-Ruso et al.  for densities from half to twice $`\rho _0`$ and temperatures up to $`20\mathrm{MeV}`$. In their ”semi-phenomenological” approach they have evaluated second order diagrams taking the magnitude of the NN interaction from experiment. However, they did not perform their calculations self-consistently and did not consider long-range contributions from the mean-field. Note that the basis of their work was also a model for cold nuclear matter . Self-consistent approaches to the nucleon spectral function in nuclear matter have been studied theoretically before, e.g. by Alm et al.  and in ref. . More recently, calculations using a self-consistent T-matrix approach have been presented by Bożek . In  the temperature dependence of the spectral function was investigated up to $`T=20\mathrm{MeV}`$, but the density dependence has so far not been investigated by Bożek.

In this work we go far beyond the temperature and density ranges of -. To study the role of short-range correlations in supernovae and heavy ion collisions at CBM we consider temperatures up to $`70\mathrm{MeV}`$ and densities from $`\rho _0`$ to $`3\rho _0`$. In section 2 we briefly outline our model. The results of the calculations are presented in section 3. They are compared to other models (at $`T=0`$ and finite temperatures) and we discuss the temperature and density dependence of the short-range correlations in nuclear matter. A summary is given in section 4.

## 2 The Model

The model we present here was introduced in  for cold ($`T=0`$) nuclear matter at saturation density $`\rho _0`$. The underlying Green’s function formalism is described in much detail in . Thus we restrict ourselves here to a short summary of the concept. We show in more detail how to modify the original model  for the application to arbitrary densities and temperatures. Throughout this paper we consider only symmetric nuclear matter.

On the two-particle–one-hole ($`2p1h`$) and one-particle–two-hole ($`1p2h`$) level, respectively, the collisional or polarization self-energies $`\mathrm{\Sigma }^>`$ and $`\mathrm{\Sigma }^<`$ are given by:

$`\mathrm{\Sigma }^{}`$ $`=`$ $`g{\displaystyle \frac{d^3p_2d\omega _2}{(2\pi )^4}\frac{d^3p_3d\omega _3}{(2\pi )^4}\frac{d^3p_4d\omega _4}{(2\pi )^4}(2\pi )^4\delta ^4(p+p_2p_3p_4)\overline{|^2|}}`$ (1)
$`\times g^{}(\omega _2,p_2)g^{}(\omega _3,p_3)g^{}(\omega _4,p_4),`$
where $`g=4`$ is the nucleonic spin-isospin degeneracy factor and $`\overline{||^2}`$ is the square of the nucleon-nucleon scattering amplitude averaged over spin and isospin of the incoming and summed over spin and isospin of the outgoing nucleons. We leave the structure of $``$ open for the moment and come back to it later. The correlation functions $`g^>`$ and $`g^<`$ in eq.(1) can be rewritten in terms of the spectral function $`a(\omega ,p)`$,

$`g^<(\omega ,p)`$ $`=`$ $`ia(\omega ,p)f(\omega ,p),`$
$`g^>(\omega ,p)`$ $`=`$ $`ia(\omega ,p)(1f(\omega ,p)),`$ (2)
with the phase space distribution function $`f(\omega ,p)`$. In thermal equilibrium $`f`$ is just the Fermi distribution function depending on the energy and, through the chemical potential $`\omega _F`$, on the density of the system,

$`f(\omega )={\displaystyle \frac{1}{1+e^{(\omega \omega _F)/T}}}.`$ (3)
The previous calculations were greatly simplified by the fact that at zero temperature the Fermi distributions reduce to step functions allowing for considerable simplifications of eq.(1) by taking advantage of closed form analytic expressions .

The single particle spectral function in (2) is explicitly given as

$`a(\omega ,p)={\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\omega ,p)}{(\omega \frac{p^2}{2m}\mathrm{\Sigma }^{\mathrm{mf}}\mathrm{Re}\mathrm{\Sigma }^{\mathrm{ret}}(\omega ,p))^2+\frac{1}{4}\mathrm{\Gamma }^2(\omega ,p)}},`$ (4)
where $`\mathrm{Re}\mathrm{\Sigma }^{\mathrm{ret}}`$ is the real part of the collisional self-energy and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ is the width of the spectral function. $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ is directly related to the imaginary part of the retarded self-energy,

$`\mathrm{\Gamma }(\omega ,p)=2\text{Im}\mathrm{\Sigma }^{\mathrm{ret}}(\omega ,p)=i(\mathrm{\Sigma }^>(\omega ,p)\mathrm{\Sigma }^<(\omega ,p)).`$ (5)
Note, that eq.(4) also includes the mean-field self-energy $`\mathrm{\Sigma }^{\mathrm{mf}}=\mathrm{\Sigma }^{\mathrm{mf}}(p,\rho ,T)`$ which is not contained in $`\mathrm{\Sigma }^{}`$. The purely hermitian $`\mathrm{\Sigma }^{\mathrm{mf}}`$ contains the contributions to the self-energy arising from ground state tadpole diagrams describing mainly long-range correlations.

We can rewrite the first term in the denominator of eq.(4) by expanding $`\mathrm{\Sigma }^{\mathrm{mf}}(p,\rho ,T)\mathrm{\Sigma }^{\mathrm{mf}}(k_F,\rho ,T)+(p^2k_F^2)\mathrm{\Sigma }_{}^{\mathrm{mf}}{}_{}{}^{}(k_F,\rho ,T)+\mathrm{}`$ up to $`𝒪(p^2)`$. The momentum dependent part of $`\mathrm{\Sigma }^{\mathrm{mf}}`$ can then be absorbed into the kinetic energy term by introducing a density and temperature dependent effective mass $`\frac{1}{m^{}}=\frac{1}{m}(1+2m\mathrm{\Sigma }_{}^{\mathrm{mf}}{}_{}{}^{}),`$ as successfully used, e.g., in Skyrme density functionals . We get:

$`{\displaystyle \frac{p^2}{2m}}+\mathrm{\Sigma }^{\mathrm{mf}}(p,\rho )+\mathrm{Re}\mathrm{\Sigma }^{\mathrm{ret}}(\omega ,p)`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{p^2}{2m^{}}}+U_{\mathrm{eff}}(\rho )+\mathrm{Re}\mathrm{\Sigma }^{\mathrm{ret}}(\omega ,p),`$ (6)
where the effective potential $`U_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ is the momentum independent part of $`\mathrm{\Sigma }^{\mathrm{mf}}`$. We will discuss the role of $`U_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ and $`\mathrm{Re}\mathrm{\Sigma }^{\mathrm{ret}}`$ in more detail below.

The equations (1)-(5) describe a self-consistency problem. Typically, such problems cannot be solved directly but iterative procedures are the appropriate methods of solution. Hence, the spectral function is obtained iteratively by the following procedure: Starting with an initial guess for $`a(\omega ,p)`$ in the integrals of eq.(1) an approximation for the width $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ is found. Inserting this $`\mathrm{\Gamma }(\omega ,p)`$ into eq.(4) yields an improved expression for the spectral function that is inserted into (1) again. This procedure can be repeated until convergence is achieved. In the language of Feynman diagrams the solution of this self-consistency problem corresponds to the non-perturbative summation over a whole class of diagrams by reinserting the full in-medium Green’s functions into the self-energies.

As we have seen above there are two real contributions to the self-energy. One is the mean-field self-energy that is purely real and does not affect the width directly. The other contribution is the real part of the collisional self-energy $`\mathrm{Re}\mathrm{\Sigma }^{\mathrm{ret}}`$. It is related to the imaginary part of the polarization self-energy (i.e., the width of the single particle spectral function) by a dispersion relation, e.g. discussed in . There, the importance of the dispersive contributions was investigated by performing calculations with and without $`\mathrm{Re}\mathrm{\Sigma }^{\mathrm{ret}}`$. Although analyticity is not conserved when $`\mathrm{Re}\mathrm{\Sigma }^{\mathrm{ret}}`$ is neglected  it was found that overall the results on spectral functions did not change very much. Taking advantage of this finding we will ignore the dispersive part for the present investigations, thus simplifying the calculations considerably. For a full treatment of $`\mathrm{Re}\mathrm{\Sigma }^{\mathrm{ret}}`$ we refer to .

More important for our present purpose of studying the density and temperature dependence of short-range correlations are the mean-field potential $`U_{\mathrm{eff}}=U_{\mathrm{eff}}(\rho ,T)`$ and the effective mass $`m^{}=m^{}(\rho )`$. The net effect of the potential $`U_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ is a temperature and density dependent energy shift of the pole structure of the single particle propagators and hence the spectral functions. For the investigations in  at $`T=0`$ and $`\rho =\rho _0`$ such a shift could be absorbed into a re-definition of the chemical potential. This is no longer possible when we look for the density and temperature dependence of our results to which long-range correlations contribute.

The temperature and density dependence of the single-particle potential in nuclear matter has been studied before microscopically, ranging from self-consistent Brueckner and Brueckner Hartree-Fock approaches e.g. in  to the variational calculations with 2- and 3-body forces by the Urbana group . In a different context, the density and momentum dependence of the variational mean-field was studied in . A re-analysis of these rather involved mean-field results by a second order polynomial in $`k^2k_F^2`$ leads to an almost perfect description of the momentum dependence with an effective mass of $`m^{}/m=0.69`$. This confirms the effective mass approach utilized in eq.(6). These findings also confirm the use of a schematic description of the mean-field part, in particular so because the static parts of the self-energies are cancelled to a large extent in dynamical quantities like propagators. Hence, we decide to describe the mean-field in a Skyrme model  for the sake of a most transparent and simple approach.

From the Skyrme energy density functional in standard notation  $`U_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ and $`m^{}`$ in infinite symmetric nuclear matter are obtained by

$`U_{\mathrm{eff}}(\rho )`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{3}{4}}t_0\rho +{\displaystyle \frac{1}{16}}(3t_1+5t_2)\tau +{\displaystyle \frac{3}{16}}t_3\rho ^2,`$ (7)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2m^{}}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2m}}+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{16}}(3t_1+5t_2)\rho ,`$ (8)
where $`t_0`$, $`t_1`$, $`t_2`$, and $`t_3`$ are parameters of the Skyrme interaction . The parameter set we have used here is given in Table 1. $`\tau `$ is the (quasi-particle) kinetic energy density,

$`\tau ={\displaystyle \frac{2}{\pi ^2}}{\displaystyle \underset{0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}𝑑p{\displaystyle \frac{p^4}{e^{(p^2k_F^2)/2m^{}T}+1}},`$ (9)
with $`k_F^2=2m^{}(\omega _FU_{\mathrm{eff}})`$.

It is well known that nuclear matter ceases to be bound beyond a critical density $`\rho _\mathrm{c}(T)`$ where the repulsive kinetic energy term overrules the nuclear attraction. For processes inside a supernova this is, however, not a crucial problem. The core collapse is not driven by nuclear, but by gravitational forces. Eventually, the repulsive nuclear potential even stops the collapse when several times nuclear matter density is reached.

For a complete definition of the approach we also have to specify the scattering amplitude $``$ in the collision integrals (1). Taking into account the observation of Lehr et al.  that the short-range correlations primarily depend on global properties of the interactions on ranges of the (repulsive) vector meson masses and the available phase space we will also use a constant matrix element in our calculations, corresponding to an effective zero-range contact interaction.

The value of $``$ will be chosen independent of temperature and density of the system. It is noteworthy that until now a description of short-range correlations including a fully self-consistent description of the interactions is still pending, although first attempts in that direction have been made. In such calculations, e.g. by the Rostock group  or, more recently, by Bozek  significant variations of the interactions with temperature are not obtained. Accepting that short-range correlations are due to short-range interactions, a strong dependence of the interaction matrix element is not very likely, either.

In order to enforce the convergence of integrations involving $``$ and extending over the space of $`2p1h`$ and $`1p2h`$ configurations, respectively, we introduce a form factor such that the collision integrals in eq.(1) are cut off at large $`\omega `$. Lehr et al. had introduced a form factor that acts on the total energies and momenta of the collisions corresponding to eq.(1). This form factor did only affect the results at $`\omega >\omega _F`$. For the occupied states below $`\omega _F`$ the results remained unchanged. Due to the density dependence of the chemical potential, however, this form factor is not a sensible choice for our calculations.

Different to the approach in  we use here a form factor acting on the t-channel and suppressing processes with large energy and momentum transfers (see  for details):

$`F(\omega _\mathrm{t},\stackrel{}{p}_\mathrm{t})={\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Lambda }^4}{\mathrm{\Lambda }^4+\left(m_\mu ^2\omega _\mathrm{t}^2+p_\mathrm{t}^2\right)^2}},`$ (10)
where $`\omega _\mathrm{t}=\omega \omega _3`$ and $`\stackrel{}{p}_\mathrm{t}=\stackrel{}{p}\stackrel{}{p}_3`$. The mass $`m_\mu 𝒪(m_\rho )`$ corresponds to the typical mass of an exchanged meson in nucleon scattering processes and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ defines the scale of the cutoff. Note that $`F`$ has no pole on the real axis.

## 3 Numerical Details and Results

We have calculated the nucleon spectral function in nuclear matter at temperatures from $`10`$ to $`70\mathrm{MeV}`$ and at densities $`\rho =\rho _0\mathrm{}3\rho _0`$ ($`\rho _0=0.16\mathrm{fm}^3`$). In the calculations we used the Skyrme force type SIII’ to generate a mean-field potential and an effective mass $`m^{}`$ (cf. ). The corresponding set of parameters is given in Table 1. In infinite nuclear matter at zero temperature one finds for this choice of parameters a binding energy of $`16.1\mathrm{MeV}`$ and a mass ratio of $`m^{}/m=0.76`$ at a Fermi momentum of $`k_F=1.29\mathrm{fm}^1`$ ($`\rho =\rho _0`$). For the mean-field potential a value of $`U_{\mathrm{eff}}=61.6\mathrm{MeV}`$ is found. Compared to the variational results of Wiringa  the saturation properties are slightly different with an equilibrium point shifted to a somewhat lower density. The larger effective mass indicates a weaker momentum dependence of the SIII’ interaction.

The averaged scattering amplitude was adjusted to the value111This value differs from the one used in  by the factor $`m/m^{}1.4`$. $`(\overline{||^2})^{1/2}=309\mathrm{MeV}\mathrm{fm}^3`$ so that the results of the many-body calculations of Benhar et al. for $`T=0`$  are reproduced. The cutoff parameter $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ of the form factor (10) was set to $`1.2\mathrm{GeV}`$ and the mass $`m_\mu `$ to $`600\mathrm{MeV}`$. To verify that this is a reasonable choice for the parameters we compare the on-shell width $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{on}}(\omega )=\mathrm{\Gamma }(\omega ,p(\omega ))`$, where $`p(\omega )=(2m^{}(\omega U_{\mathrm{eff}}))^{1/2}`$, from our calculation to the results of Benhar et al.  and Baldo et al. . In Fig. 1 the on-shell widths are shown for normal nuclear matter density and $`T=0`$. As it can be seen, our result is in good agreement with the sophisticated many-body calculation of Benhar et al. and supports the choice of the parameters. Note that the discrepancies between the results of Baldo and Benhar are explained in  by the different NN interactions that are employed.

In the following we will show the results of our calculations and investigate the density and temperature dependence of the short-range correlations. First, we present cuts of the nucleon spectral function at a constant momentum to illustrate the general role of temperature and density. Fig. 2 shows the spectral function for temperatures of $`0`$, $`10`$ and $`50\mathrm{MeV}`$ at normal nuclear matter density. The effect of higher temperatures is clearly visible. The gap at the Fermi energy gets smeared out for $`T=10\mathrm{MeV}`$ and has almost vanished at $`T=50\mathrm{MeV}`$. This phenomenon is directly related to the fact that for non-vanishing T – in contrast to a system at zero temperature – states at energies above $`\omega _F`$ are populated. The states at the Fermi surface cease to be quasi-stable.

In Fig. 3 the spectral function is shown for three different densities at a constant temperature of $`10\mathrm{MeV}`$. Since the chemical potential depends on the density the three curves are shifted along the energy axis. Note that the relation $`\mu \rho ^{1/3}`$ for the free Fermi gas does not hold here as it can be directly seen for $`T=0`$, where $`\mu =\tau +\mathrm{Re}(\mathrm{\Sigma }(k_F))`$. One should not get mislead by the observation that the on-shell peaks at lower densities are broader than the peak at the highest density. This effect is due to the fact that the on-shell energy lies closer to the Fermi energy for the highest density. This induces a stronger suppression of the on-shell peak than in the other cases.

Figs. 2 and 3 give a first impression of the spectral functions. To investigate the temperature and density dependence of the short-range correlations, however, we use the better suited on-shell width of the spectral function, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{on}}(\omega )`$. In Fig. 4 we show our results for $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{on}}(\omega )`$ at temperatures of $`10`$ and $`20\mathrm{MeV}`$ and densities of $`\rho _0`$ and $`2\rho _0`$. Also shown are the results of Alvarez-Ruso et al. . As we have already seen in Figs. 2 and 3 the width of the states at the Fermi surface does not drop to zero for finite temperatures. Increasing the temperature leads to larger values of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{on}}`$ in the vicinity of the Fermi surface while the size and the shape of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{on}}`$ do not change significantly at higher energies. Increasing the density shows the opposite effect. $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{on}}`$ is left unchanged in the vicinity of the Fermi surface while the slope at high energies increases. Compared to  our results seem to be shifted by approximately $`5\mathrm{MeV}`$ to higher values of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{on}}`$. The shift can be explained by the differences in the NN interactions that were used in both calculations. The shape of the curves is in good agreement for $`\omega \omega _F<150\mathrm{MeV}`$. At higher energies the form factor that was used in our calculations affects the shape of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{on}}`$, e.g. leading to the observed curvature in our results.

Qualitatively our results (for $`\rho =\rho _0`$ and $`T20\mathrm{MeV}`$) are similar to those obtained in the self-consistent T-matrix approach by Bożek  but on a quantitative level significant differences are found. However, the deviations range within the uncertainties introduced using different nucleon-nucleon interactions in fully microscopic calculations. This is evident by comparing the results in , based on the Paris NN potential, e.g. to the variational results of Benhar et al. , obtained with the Argonne NN potential. The reason for these deviations is found in the fact that by the way of deriving these empirical interactions from NN data they are guaranteed to agree in their predictions of on-shell quantities, as e.g. free space NN scattering phase shifts, but might differ in the off-shell region. While we work with a constant coupling in combination with a t-channel form factor Bożek tends to use strongly momentum dependent interactions like the Paris potential (see  for details). Similar observations are discussed in  when results of different approaches – including  and  – are compared. Note that the same effect has already shown up in Fig. 1 for the results of Benhar  and Baldo .

The temperature dependence of the on-shell width at various densities is illustrated in Fig. 5. The effect of filling the gap at the Fermi surface with increasing temperature is clearly visible. At all densities one observes a levelling off in the energy dependence of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{on}}(\omega )`$ at the highest temperatures indicating the gradual changes in the available phase space in a heated system.

The behavior seen in Fig. 5 deserves a closer inspection. Before doing so we should take into account that the chemical potential $`\omega _F`$ depends strongly on the nucleon density, as was shown in Fig. 3. Thus one has to be careful at which energy $`\omega `$ and momentum $`p(\omega )`$, respectively, the widths for different temperatures and densities are compared. This problem is avoided by averaging the on-shell width over the occupied states and compare this $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{on}}`$ for the different $`\rho `$ and $`T`$. Fig. 6 shows the overall behavior of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{on}}`$ for the full temperature and density range that was covered in our calculations. Note that one gets a very similar picture when $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{on}}(\omega )`$, i.e. the on-shell width at the averaged energy of the occupied states, is displayed instead. The general features of this figure are thus universal. It can be seen in Fig. 6 that the on-shell width ranges from $`10\mathrm{MeV}`$ at low temperatures up to $`40\mathrm{MeV}`$ at high temperatures. $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{on}}`$ rises almost linearly with the temperature at medium and high densities. At normal nuclear matter density the dependence is only linear for temperatures below $`45\mathrm{MeV}`$ and gets weaker at higher temperatures. The density dependence of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{on}}`$ that can be derived from Fig. 6 has a more complicated structure. As long as the density is low ($`\rho <2\rho _0`$) $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{on}}`$ does increase with the density just as one would expect naively. At densities above $`2\rho _0`$, however, the density dependence becomes very weak – in particular for temperatures above $`30`$ \- $`40\mathrm{MeV}`$. Since we take the on-shell width as a measure for short-range correlations this means that the correlations saturate at densities above two times normal nuclear matter density.

The explanation for the saturation is rather simple. Pauli-blocking suppresses nucleon collisions (the source of the correlations) with final states below the Fermi surface. Since the chemical potential depends strongly on the nucleon density more (kinematically allowed) final states are blocked at higher $`\rho `$. At high $`\rho `$ there are also more collision partners (initial states) for a particle with given energy and momentum but this cannot compensate the suppression from Pauli-blocking. To understand this one has to look at the total collision rate for a nucleon with given $`\omega `$ and $`p`$ with the nucleons of the medium (cf. eq.(1)). There are two final states that are affected by Pauli-blocking but there is only one initial state from below the Fermi surface. Thus the effect of increased Pauli-blocking is more important than the gain of initial states.

To verify that this explanation is correct we have made additional calculations in which Pauli-blocking was switched off. The result is shown in Fig. 7. It can be clearly seen that without Pauli-blocking there is a linear dependence of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{on}}`$ on both, temperature and density, over the full range covered by our calculations. This is exactly the picture one would naively expect when Pauli-blocking is not taken into account. Thus Pauli-blocking is in fact the correct explanation for the saturation of the short-range correlations at high densities.

## 4 Summary and Conclusions

In this paper we have presented an approach to short-range correlations in nuclear matter at finite temperatures and high densities. Based on the work of Lehr et al.  we have constructed a simple but self-consistent model that goes beyond the quasi-particle approximation. The interactions between the nucleons were described by a constant matrix element in combination with a form factor that limits the energy and momentum transfer in the collisions. In  the averaged coupling constant has led to excellent results for a system at zero temperature. We have not calculated the mean-field contributions self-consistently within the model. Instead, a Skyrme-type interaction model was incorporated to assure a realistic thermodynamical behavior of the chemical potential.

We have calculated the spectral function of nucleons in symmetric nuclear matter at temperatures from $`10`$ to $`70\mathrm{MeV}`$ and densities from $`\rho _0`$ to $`3\rho _0`$. This has been the first time that this large regime is investigated consistently within the same model. It was shown that our results are in good agreement with other calculations at temperatures up to $`20\mathrm{MeV}`$ and densities up to $`2\rho _0`$. The width of the spectral function was used to get informations about the temperature and energy dependence of the short-range correlations. We have found that the correlations scale approximately linear with temperature. At high densities, however, the correlations saturate, an effect that can be explained by Pauli-blocking.

The model we have presented here is open for further improvements. Using separate spectral functions for protons and neutrons and introducing an isospin dependent coupling it would also be possible to investigate isospin asymmetric nuclear matter.

## Acknowledgments

We thank Stefan Leupold and Jürgen Lehr for helpful discussions during the preparation of this work. In addition we would like to thank J. Lehr for providing the original computer code that was used in .


format: text

text:
# Splitting the voter criticality

## Abstract

Recently some two-dimensional models with double symmetric absorbing states were shown to share the same critical behaviour that was called the voter universality class. We show, that for an absorbing-states Potts model with finite but further than nearest neighbour range of interactions the critical point is splitted into two critical points: one of the Ising type, and the other of the directed percolation universality class. Similar splitting takes place in the three-dimensional nearest-neighbour model.

Nonequilibrium phase transitions are recently attracting increasing theoretical interest. One of the motivations driving the research in this field is the idea that, similarly to equilibrium systems, nonequilibrium continuous phase transitions can be also divided into several, hopefully not so many, universality classes HAYE1 . Indeed, there are some examples that show that such a classification, at least to some extent, can be made. Particularly interesting results exist for models with absorbing states, and a notable example is the directed percolation (DP) universality class. A conjecture by Jenssen and Grassberger DP  that models with a single absorbing state should belong to the same universality class has by now very convincing supports. Another universality class encompasses models with double absorbing states PC1 ; HAYE97 , that in one dimension ($`d=1`$) includes also models which dynamics has some additional symmetry (parity conservation) PC . However, it is also known that any asymmetry in the dynamics that would favor any of the absorbing states drives the system into DP universality class PARK . Universality of models with more than two absorbing states is even more problematic since for models with symmetric absorbing states some details of the dynamics might affect the critical behaviour too LIPDROZ1 . It is becoming clear that a task of classifying nonequilibrium phase transitions is far from completed ODOR .

Numerical results that support the above classification come mainly from one dimensional models. The situation for $`d>1`$ is less understood, but there are some results in this case too. In addition to numerous examples of models with a single absorbing state and thus belonging to DP universality class HAYE1 , there are some indications that for $`d>1`$ models with more than two symmetric absorbing states the phase transition should be discontinuous LIPDROZ . In between, there are models with two absorbing states. Dornic et al. shown that in this case and for $`d=2`$ a group of models belongs to a new universality class called a voter universality class CHATE . Originally, a voter model was introduced in a rather nonphysical context of opinion spreading LIGGETT . Later on numerous examples of related and physically more relevant models were also studied VOTER . Although the phase transition in the voter universality class is continuous, the decay of the order parameter $`\rho `$ upon approaching the critical point is slower than any power law decay $`\rho ϵ^\beta `$, where $`ϵ`$ measures the distance from the critical point. Formally such a decay might be described with $`\beta =0`$. In addition, the time decay of the order parameter at criticality is also slower than any power law decay and is in fact logarithmic ($`\rho 1/\mathrm{ln}(t)`$) as shown exactly KRAP . Some other exponents of voter universality class were also determined CHATE .

An interesting feature of the voter model, that was not yet addressed, is the fact that at its critical point actually two phenomena seem to take place. One of them is the symmetry breaking between two competing states of the model, that is similar to the symmetry breaking in the equilibrium Ising model. The second phenomenon is the phase transition between active and absorbing phases of the model. Since there is no symmetry breaking transition in one dimensional equilibrium Ising model, it is easy to understand that for models with two absorbing states in $`d=1`$, the symmetry breaking must result from the absorbing phase transition and thus both phenomena take place simultaneously. But this is no longer the case for $`d>1`$ models, and the coincidence of these two transitions should not be taken for granted.

In the present paper we study a recently introduced nonequilibrium Potts model which dynamics has two absorbing states LIPDROZ . We show that the model with nearest-neighbour interactions on square lattice belongs to the voter universality class. However, with extended range of interactions (up to third nearest neighbours) the voter critical point is splitted. Starting from the disordered phase and reducing a temperature-like control parameter $`T`$, the model first undergoes symmetry breaking phase transition. Calculation of the Binder cumulant indicates that this transition belongs to the Ising universality class. Upon further decrease of $`T`$, the model undergoes a second phase transition into the absorbing phase. Since at this point the symmetry is already broken, this second transition, as expected, belongs to the DP universality class. Similar behaviour is observed for the nearest neighbour model in the three-dimensional case.

That a certain type of a nonequilibrium critical point can be considered as superposition of two other critical points is in our opinion new, and hopefully, it should increase the understanding of nonequilibrium phase transitions. Let us notice that a superposition of different critical points exist in some equilibrium systems. For example, in the frustrated XY model two phase transitions of the Kosterlitz-Thouless type ($`U(1)`$) and of the Ising type ($`Z_2`$) under certain conditions most likely happen simultaneously XY . Another example is a multicritical point in random magnets AHARONY .

Before defining our model let us recall that the equilibrium ferromagnetic 2-state Potts model can be defined using the following Hamiltonian WU

$$H=\underset{(i,j)}{}\delta _{\sigma _i\sigma _j},$$
(1)
where summation is over pairs $`(i,j)`$ of interacting sites on a cartesian lattice of the linear size $`L`$. With each site $`i`$ we assign a variable $`\sigma _i=0,1`$ and $`\delta `$ is the Kronecker delta function.

To study model (1) using Monte Carlo simulations one constructs a stochastic Markov process with suitably chosen transition rates. One of the possible choices corresponds to the so-called Metropolis algorithm. In this algorithm one looks at the energy difference $`\mathrm{\Delta }E`$ between the final and initial configuration and accept the move with probability min$`\{1,\mathrm{e}^{\mathrm{\Delta }E/T}\}`$, where $`T`$ is temperature. To obtain a model that would have symmetric absorbing states we modify the Metropolis algorithm of model (1) as follows LIPDROZ : when all neighbours of a given site $`i`$ are in the same state as this site, then the site $`i`$ cannot change its state. Thus, the dynamics of our model is defined as follows: (i) Select randomly the site $`i`$ and its possible final state. (ii) If $`\mathrm{\Delta }E<z`$ update the site $`i`$ with the probability min$`\{1,\mathrm{e}^{\mathrm{\Delta }E/T}\}`$, where $`z`$ is the number of neighbours interacting with site $`i`$ (in our paper $`z`$ is $`i`$-independent). Let us notice, that after such a modification, $`T`$ is no longer temperature. Nevertheless, we will keep such a terminology. Moreover, the unit of time is defined as a single (on average) update of every site.

To examine the properties of our model we used numerical simulations. A natural characteristic of models with absorbing states is the steady-state density of active sites $`\rho `$. In our model a given site $`i`$ is active when at least one of its neighbours is in a state different than $`i`$. Otherwise the site $`i`$ is called nonactive. Moreover, we used the so-called dynamic Monte Carlo method where one sets the system in the absorbing state with activity only locally initiated and measure some stochastic properties of runs GRASSTORRE . Typical characteristics are the survival probability $`P(t)`$ that activity survives at least until time $`t`$, and the average number of active sites $`N(t)`$ (averaged over all runs). At criticality $`P(t)`$ and $`N(t)`$ are expected to have power-law decay: $`P(t)t^\delta `$ and $`N(t)t^\eta `$. To detect a possible symmetry breaking in the model we measured the magnetization $`m=\frac{2}{L^d}_i\sigma _i1`$ and its variance $`s=\frac{1}{L^d}(2_i(\sigma _i\sigma _i)L^d)^2`$. At the symmetry breaking critical point the variance $`s`$, that is related with magnetic susceptibility for equilibrium systems, is expected to diverge in the limit $`L\mathrm{}`$. Below we present the results of our simulations. We ensured that the lattice size $`L`$ is large enough for the finite-size effects to be negligible.

(A) Model with nearest-neighbour interactions on square lattice
In this case the model was already studied by some of us, but only in the context of an absorbing phase transition LIPDROZ . A very slow decay of $`\rho `$ at the critical point was observed, but being unaware of the relation with the voter model, we could not draw definite conclusions about the nature of the critical point in this case CHATE1 . Indeed, having a double symmetric absorbing state and being driven only by interfacial noise, the model satisfies the Dornic et al.’s criterions for belonging to the voter universality class. Additional confirmation is shown in Fig. 1. One can see that the variance $`s`$ diverges at the same temperature where $`\rho `$ vanishes. Moreover, $`s^1`$ seems to decay linearly at the critical point which implies that $`\gamma =1`$, as also predicted for this universality class CHATE .

(B) Model with up to third-nearest-neighbour interactions on square lattice
Studying our nonequilibrium Potts model within a mean-field approximation at the pair level, we noticed that for sufficiently large coordination number $`z`$ a structure of the solution qualitatively changes in a way that clearly indicates two separate transitions in the model PREPARATION . It prompted us to simulate our model with interactions including also further neighbours. First we studied the model with interactions up to second-nearest neighbours ($`z=8`$). It turned out, that in this case either the model belongs to the voter universality class or there is only extremely small splitting beyond the resolution of our simulations.

However, for the model with interactions up to third-nearest neighbours ($`z=12`$), a qualitatively new picture emerges. Indeed, one can see in Fig. 2 that the variance $`s`$ diverges at the temperature $`T_I`$ that is clearly larger than the temperature $`T_c`$ where $`\rho `$ vanishes. In the temperature interval $`T_c<T<T_I`$ our model is magnetized (Fig. 2). To avoid rather slow coarsening effects in this interval it is better to start simulations from an asymmetric ($`m0`$) initial configuration.

To examine the nature of the phase transition at $`T=T_I`$, we calculated the so-called Binder cumulant BINDER  $`U=1\frac{m_4}{3m_2^2}`$, where $`m_n`$ is the $`n`$-th moment of magnetization. In Fig. 3 one can see that at the crossing point $`U`$ is relatively close to the universal value $`U=0.6107`$ of the $`d=2`$ Ising model KAMIENIARZ . Although our model is nonequilibrium its critical behaviour at $`T=T_I`$ is the same as in equilibrium (Ising) systems. Such a feature is in agreement with some expectations GRINSTEIN  that at the critical point of many nonequilibrium systems only some general properties (e.g., symmetry) determines the nature of the critical point while some other, as e.g., lack of detailed balance, are very often irrelevant in this respect.

Since the symmetry is already broken upon approaching the critical point at $`T=T_c`$, we expect that this critical point should belong to the (2+1) DP universality class. Simulations confirm these expectations. In Fig. 4 one can see that close to the critical point at $`T=T_c`$ the density of active sites behaves as $`\rho (TT_c)^\beta `$ and we estimate that $`\beta =0.61(4)`$, that can be compared with the DP value 0.584 HAYE1 . Additional confirmation is obtained using the dynamical Monte Carlo method, that enables us also to precisely locate the critical temperature $`T_c=4.7380(5)`$. From the measurement of $`N(t)`$ (Fig. 5) at criticality we estimate $`\eta =0.25(3)`$ which is in a reasonable agreement with DP value 0.230 HAYE1 . We also measured $`P(t)`$ and from these data (not presented here) we estimate $`\delta =0.44(3)`$ that can be compared with the DP value 0.451 HAYE1 . Our estimation of dynamical exponents is much different from that obtained for some models of voter universality class $`\delta 0.9`$, $`\eta 0.0`$ HAYE97 ; LIPDROZ .

Let us notice that similarly to the nearest-neighbour case, the $`z=12`$ model also has two absorbing states and is driven only by interfacial noise. Nevertheless, the critical behaviour in this case is much different from the voter model. This is thus yet another example that shows that simple criterions most likely cannot be used for classifying nonequilibrium critical points.

(C) Model with nearest-neighbour interactions on simple cubic lattice
We also studied the three-dimensional nearest-neighbour version of our model (z=6). Similarly to the $`z=12`$ case, here again the absorbing and magnetic phase transitions are separated (Fig. 6). We expect that in this case the magnetic phase transition belongs to the $`d=3`$ Ising universality class and the absorbing phase transition belongs to the (3+1) DP universality class. Confirmation of such a scenario will require, however, extensive numerical simulations and is left for the future.

In summary, we have shown that models with two absorbing states in $`d>1`$ dimensions might exhibit two transitions where the first one breaks the symmetry and the second one brings the model into an absorbing state. In the voter model and some related models these two transitions coincide. Hopefully, such an interpretation of the voter model will contribute to a better understanding of its unusual critical behaviour. For example, diminishing the strength of the further neighbour interactions we can reduce the splitting $`T_IT_c`$ and examine a crossover to the voter universality class at which $`T_I=T_c`$. Of course the Ising type phase transition is not the only type of the symmetry breaking and other types as e.g., 3-state Potts or XY, are also possible in nonequilibrium systems. It would be interesting to examine whether such critical points can be superposed with DP universality class, that might result in new types of critical behaviours.

We thank H. Chaté for interesting discussion. This work was partially supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation and the project OFES 00-0578 ”COSYC OF SENS”. A. L. F. is grateful for the financial support from the Sapiens project POCTI/33141/99.