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We present the results of a National Science Foundation (NSF) Project Scoping Workshop, the purpose of which was to assess the current status of calculations for the nuclear matrix elements governing neutrinoless double-beta decay and determine if more work on them is required. After reviewing important recent progress in the application of effective field theory, lattice quantum chromodynamics, and ab initio nuclear-structure theory to double-beta decay, we discuss the state of the art in nuclear-physics uncertainty quantification and then construct a road map for work in all these areas to fully complement the increasingly sensitive experiments in operation and under development. The road map contains specific projects in theoretical and computational physics as well as an uncertainty-quantification plan that employs Bayesian Model Mixing and an analysis of correlations between double-beta-decay rates and other observables. The goal of this program is a set of accurate and precise matrix elements, in all nuclei of interest to experimentalists, delivered together with carefully assessed uncertainties. Such calculations will allow crisp conclusions from the observation or non-observation of neutrinoless double-beta decay, no matter what new physics is at play., Comment: This Project Scoping Workshop report is focused on the US context for the theory of neutrinloess double beta decay. Its authors plan to produce a journal article that addresses similar issues, but is more inclusive as regards non-US efforts on this problem. We would be happy to receive further input that will help us refine our text before it is submitted to the journal

Background: The half-life of the famous $^{14}$C $\beta$ decay is anomalously long, with different mechanisms: the tensor force, cross-shell mixing, and three-body forces, proposed to explain the cancellations that lead to a small transition matrix element. Purpose: We revisit and analyze the role of the tensor force for the $\beta$ decay of $^{14}$C as well as of neighboring isotopes. Methods: We add a tensor force to the Gogny interaction, and derive an effective Hamiltonian for shell-model calculations. The calculations were carried out in a $p$-$sd$ model space to investigate cross-shell effects. Furthermore, we decompose the wave functions according to the total orbital angular momentum $L$ in order to analyze the effects of the tensor force and cross-shell mixing. Results: The inclusion of the tensor force significantly improves the shell-model calculations of the $\beta$-decay properties of carbon isotopes. In particular, the anomalously slow $\beta$ decay of $^{14}$C can be explained by the isospin $T=0$ part of the tensor force, which changes the components of $^{14}$N with the orbital angular momentum $L=0,1$, and results in a dramatic suppression of the Gamow-Teller transition strength. At the same time, the description of other nearby $\beta$ decays are improved. Conclusions: Decomposition of wave function into $L$ components illuminates how the tensor force modifies nuclear wave functions, in particular suppression of $\beta$-decay matrix elements. Cross-shell mixing also has a visible impact on the $\beta$-decay strength. Inclusion of the tensor force does not seem to significantly change, however, binding energies of the nuclei within the phenomenological interaction., Comment: 8 Pages,7 Figures

We present for the first-time the photonuclear cross section of $^{10}$B calculated within the ab-initio No Core Shell Model framework. Realistic two-nucleon (NN) chiral forces up to next-to-next-to-next-order (N3LO), which have been softened by the similarity renormalization group method (SRG) to $\lambda=2.02$ fm$^{-1}$, were utilized. The electric-dipole response function is calculated using the Lanczos method. The effects of the continuum were accounted for by including neutron escape widths derived from R-matrix theory. The calculated cross section agrees well with experimental data in terms of structure as well as in absolute peak height, $\sigma_{\rm max}=4.85~{\rm mb}$ at photon energy $\omega=23.61~{\rm MeV}$, and integrated cross section $85.36\, {\rm MeV \cdotp mb}$. We test the Brink hypothesis by calculating the electric-dipole response for the first five positive-parity states in $^{10}$B and verify that dipole excitations built upon the ground- and excited states have similar characteristics., Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures

Isoscalar (T=0,J=1) and isovector (T=1,J=0) pairing correlations in the ground state of self-conjugate nuclei are treated in terms of alpha-like quartets built by two protons and two neutrons coupled to total isospin T=0 and total angular momentum J=0. Quartets are constructed dynamically via an iterative variational procedure and the ground state is represented as a product of such quartets. It is shown that the quartet formalism describes accurately the ground state energies of realistic isovector plus isoscalar pairing Hamiltonians in nuclei with valence particles outside the 16O, 40Ca and 100Sn cores. Within the quartet formalism we analyse the competition between isovector and isoscalar pairing correlations and find that for nuclei with the valence nucleons above the cores 40Ca and 100Sn the isovector correlations account for the largest fraction of the total pairing correlations. This is not the case for sd-shell nuclei for which isoscalar correlations prevail. Contrary to many mean-field studies, isovector and isoscalar pairing correlations mix significantly in the quartet approach., Comment: 13 pages

We study the competition between alpha-type and conventional pair condensation in the ground state of nuclei with neutrons and protons interacting via a charge-independent pairing interaction. The ground state is described by a product of two condensates, one of alpha-like quartets and the other one of pairs in excess relative to the isotope with N=Z. It is shown that this ansatz for the ground state gives very accurate pairing correlation energies for nuclei with the valence nucleons above the closed cores 16O, 40Ca and 100Sn. These results indicate that alpha-type correlations are important not only for the self-conjugate nuclei but also for nuclei away of N=Z line. In the latter case alpha-like quartets coexist with the collective Cooper pairs formed by the nucleons in excess., Comment: 10 pages, 4 tables

We propose a simple quartet condensation model (QCM) which describes with very high accuracy the isovector pairing correlations in self-conjugate nuclei. The quartets have an alpha-like structure and are formed by collective isovector pairs. The accuracy of the QCM is tested for N=Z nuclei for which exact shell model diagonalizations can be performed. The calculations are done with two isovector pairing forces, one extracted from standard shell model interactions and the other of seniority type, acting, respectively, upon spherical and axially-deformed single-particle states. It is shown that for all calculated nuclei the QCM gives very accurate values for the pairing correlations energies, with errors which do not exceed 1%. These results show clearly that the correlations induced by the isovector pairing in self-conjugate nuclei are of quartet type and also indicate that QCM is the proper tool to calculate the isovector proton-neutron correlations in mean field pairing models., Comment: 11 pages, two tables

We carry out an interacting shell-model study of binding energies and spectra in the $sd$-shell nuclei to examine the effect of truncation of the shell-model spaces. Starting with a Hamiltonian defined in a larger space and truncating to the $sd$ shell, the binding energies are strongly affected by the truncation, but the effect on the excitation energies is an order of magnitude smaller. We then refit the matrix elements of the two-particle interaction to compensate for the space truncation, and find that it is easy to capture 90% of the binding energy shifts by refitting a few parameters. With the full parameter space of the two-particle Hamiltonian, we find that both the binding energies and the excitation energy can be fitted with remaining residual error about 5% of the average error from the truncation. Numerically, the rms initial error associated with our Hamiltonian is 3.4 MeV and the remaining residual error is 0.16 MeV. This is comparable to the empirical error found in $sd$-shell interacting shell model fits to experimental data\cite{br06}., Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures

The structure of $^{44}$Ti is studied in an oblique-basis that includes spherical and SU(3) shell-model basis states. The results show that the oblique-basis concept is applicable, even though the strong spin-orbit interaction, which breaks the SU(3) symmetry, generates significant splitting of the single-particle levels. Specifically, a model space that includes a few SU(3) irreducible representations (irreps), namely, the leading (12,0) and next to the leading (10,1) irreps -- including spin S=0 and 1 configurations of the latter, plus spherical shell-model configurations (SSMC) that have at least two valence nucleons confined to the $f_{7/2}$ orbit -- the SM(2) case, yield results that are comparable to SSMC with at least one valence nucleon confined to the $f_{7/2}$ orbit -- the SM(3) case., Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures

The spectrum and wave functions of $^{44}$Ti are studied in oblique-basis calculations using spherical and SU(3) shell-model states. Although the results for $^{44}$Ti are not as good as those previously reported for $^{24}$Mg, due primarily to the strong spin-orbit interaction that generates significant splitting of the single-particle energies that breaks the SU(3) symmetry, a more careful quantitative analysis shows that the oblique-basis concept is still effective. In particular, a model space that includes a few SU(3) irreducible representations, namely, the leading irrep (12,0) and next to the leading irrep (10,1) including its spin S=0 and 1 states, plus spherical shell-model configurations (SSMC) that have at least two valence nucleons confined to the $f_{7/2}$ orbit -- the SM(2) states, provide results that are compatible with SSMC with at least one valence nucleon confined to the $f_{7/2}$ orbit -- the SM(3) states., Comment: 3 pages, no figures, contribution to Computational and Group Theoretical Methods in Nuclear Physics, Playa del Carmen, Mexico, February 18-21, 2003

Level densities have been extracted from primary gamma spectra for 56,57-Fe and 96,97-Mo nuclei using (3-He,alpha gamma) and (3-He,3-He') reactions on 57-Fe and 97-Mo targets. The level density curves reveal step structures above the pairing gap due to the breaking of nucleon Cooper pairs. The location of the step structures in energy and their shapes arise from the interplay between single-particle energies and seniority-conserving and seniority-non-conserving interactions., Comment: 9 pages, including 5 figures

We introduce a shell-model theory that combines traditional spherical states, which yield a diagonal representation of the usual single-particle interaction, with collective configurations that track deformations, and test the validity of this mixed-mode, oblique basis shell-model scheme on $^{24}$Mg. The correct binding energy (within 2% of the full-space result) as well as low-energy configurations that have greater than 90% overlap with full-space results are obtained in a space that spans less than 10% of the full space. The results suggest that a mixed-mode shell-model theory may be useful in situations where competing degrees of freedom dominate the dynamics and full-space calculations are not feasible., Comment: 20 pages, 8 figures, revtex 12pt

Results of shell-model calculations for lower fp-shell nuclei show that SU(3) symmetry breaking in this region is driven by the single-particle spin-orbit splitting. However, even though states of the yrast band exhibit SU(3) symmetry breaking, the results also show that the yrast band B(E2) values are insensitive to this fragmentation of the SU(3) symmetry; specifically, the quadrupole collectivity as measured by B(E2) transition strengths between low lying members of the yrast band remain high even though SU(3) appears to be broken. Results for $^{44,46,48}Ti$ and $^{48}Cr$ using the Kuo-Brown-3 two-body interaction are given to illustrate these observations., Comment: Updated to the published version

The Monte Carlo shell model is a powerful technique for computational nuclear structure. Only a certain class of nuclear interactions, however, such as pairing and quadrupole, are free of the numerical noise known as the sign problem.This paper presents sum rules that relate the sign problem to the J=0 pairing matrix elements, thus illuminating the extrapolation procedure routinely used for realistic shell-model interactions., Comment: 10 pages, 1 figure

We investigate the generic pairing properties of shell-model many-body Hamiltonians drawn from ensembles of random two-body matrix elements. Many features of pairing that are commonly attributed to the interaction are in fact seen in a large part of the ensemble space. Not only do the spectra show evidence of pairing with favored J=0 ground states and an energy gap, but the relationship between ground state wave functions of neighboring nuclei show signatures of pairing as well. Matrix elements of pair creation/annihilation operators between ground states tend to be strongly enhanced. Furthermore, the same or similar pair operators connect several ground states along an isotopic chain. This algebraic structure is reminiscent of the generalized seniority model. Thus pairing may be encoded to a certain extent in the Fock space connectivity of the interacting shell model even without specific features of the interaction required., Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures

We investigate the low-lying spectra of many-body systems with random two-body interactions, specifying that the ensemble be invariant under particle-hole conjugation.Surprisingly we find patterns reminiscent of more orderly interactions, such as a predominance of J=0 ground states separated by a gap from the excited states, and evidence of phonon vibrations in the low-lying spectra., Comment: RevTex, 4 pages, 4 figures; accepted for publication in Phys Rev Lett

An iterative algorithm is presented for solving the RPA equations of linear response. The method optimally computes the energy-weighted moments of the strength function, allowing one to match the computational effort to the intrinsic accuracy of the basic mean-field approximation, avoiding the problem of solving very large matrices. For local interactions, the computational effort for the method scales with the number of particles N_p as O(N_p^3)., Comment: 12 pages including 3 figures; Latex

We apply the auxiliary-field Monte Carlo approach to the nuclear shell model in the 1s-0d configuration space. The Hamiltonian was chosen to have isovector pairing and isoscalar multipole-multipole interactions, and the calculations were performed within the fixed-particle, canonical ensemble. The results demonstrate the feasibility of the method for $N\neq Z$ even-even and odd-odd N=Z nuclei. In particular, static observables for even-even Ne isotopes and Na-22 compare well with results obtained from exact diagonalization of the Hamiltonian. Response functions are presented for Ne-22 and compared with exact results, and the viability of cranked calculations for $N\neq Z$ even-even nuclei is addressed. We present methods for computing observables in the canonical ensemble using Fourier extraction, and for determining the nuclear shape., Comment: 14 pages, figures available upon request, Caltech Preprint No. MAP-160

We present in detail a formulation of the shell model as a path integral and Monte Carlo techniques for its evaluation. The formulation, which linearizes the two-body interaction by an auxiliary field, is quite general, both in the form of the effective `one-body' Hamiltonian and in the choice of ensemble. In particular, we derive formulas for the use of general (beyond monopole) pairing operators, as well as a novel extraction of the canonical (fixed-particle number) ensemble via an activity expansion. We discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the various formulations and ensembles and give several illustrative examples. We also discuss and illustrate calculation of the imaginary-time response function and the extraction, by maximum entropy methods, of the corresponding strength function. Finally, we discuss the "sign-problem" generic to fermion Monte Carlo calculations, and prove that a wide class of interactions are free of this limitation., Comment: 38 pages, RevTeX v3.0, figures available upon request; Caltech Preprint #MAP-159

We present novel Monte Carlo methods for treating the interacting shell model that allow exact calculations much larger than those heretofore possible. The two-body interaction is linearized by an auxiliary field; Monte Carlo evaluation of the resulting functional integral gives ground-state or thermal expectation values of few-body operators. The ``sign problem'' generic to quantum Monte Carlo calculations is absent in a number of cases. We discuss the favorable scaling of these methods with nucleon numb er and basis size and their suitability to parallel computation., Comment: 13 pages, MAP-148