Beyond mean-field approach for pear-shaped hypernuclei

We develop both relativistic mean field and beyond approaches for hypernuclei with possible quadrupole-octupole deformation or pear-like shapes based on relativistic point-coupling energy density functionals. The symmetries broken in the mean-field states are recovered with parity, particle-number, and angular momentum projections. We take $^{21}_\Lambda$Ne as an example to illustrate the method, where the $\Lambda$ hyperon is put on one of the two lowest-energy orbits (labeled as $\Lambda_s, \Lambda_p$), respectively. We find that the $\Lambda$ hyperon in both cases disfavors the formation of a reflection-asymmetric molecular-like $^{16}$O$+\alpha$ structure in $^{20}$Ne, which is consistent with the Nilsson diagram for the hyperon in $(\beta_2, \beta_3)$ deformation plane. In particular, we show that the negative-parity states with the configuration $^{20}$Ne($K^\pi=0^-)\otimes \Lambda_s$ are close in energy to those with the configuration $^{20}$Ne($K^\pi=0^+)\otimes \Lambda_p$, even though they have very different structures. The $\Lambda_s$ ($\Lambda_p$) becomes more and more concentrated around the bottom (top) of the "pear" with the increase of octupole deformation.
Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, to be published in SCIENCE CHINA Physics, Mechanics & Astronomy (2019)