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Non-relativistic expansion of single-nucleon Dirac equation: Comparison between Foldy-Wouthuysen transformation andsimilarity renormalization group

  • By following the Foldy-Wouthuysen (FW) transformation of the Dirac equation, we derive the exact analytic expression up to the 1/M4 order for general cases in the covariant density functional theory. The results are compared with the corresponding ones derived from another novel non-relativistic expansion method, the similarity renormalization group (SRG). Based on this comparison, the origin of the difference between the results obtained with the FW transformation and the SRG method is explored.
  • Heavy-ion collisions in laboratory provide a unique possibility to create dense hadronic matter for investigating the in-medium properties of hadrons and the nuclear equation of state [1-5]. Particle production at energies below the threshold in nucleon-nucleon collisions can probe the high-density hadronic matter properties, i.e. the chiral symmetry restoration, phase-transition from quark-gluon plasma to hadrons, hadron-nucleon interaction, nuclear equation of state, etc. [6-10]. A number of experiments for subthreshold production of pions, kaons, antikaons and antiprotons in heavy-ion collisions were performed and precise spectra were measured [11-13]. The in-medium properties associated with secondary reactions and the concept of quasiparticles and their propagation in matter were investigated thoroughly. The subthreshold antiproton production is more complicated because of the annihilation process. The first evidence of antiproton production dates back to 1955, obtained at Berkeley in collisions of protons on copper at the energy of 6.2 GeV by Chamberlain, Segrè, Wiegand and Ypsilantis [14]. The experiments at BEVALAC and JINR in the 1980s were performed for subthreshold antiproton production in heavy-ion collisions, and were followed by precise measurements at KEK and GSI. Recently, antiproton pair correlation was investigated by the STAR collaboration in relativistic heavy-ion collisions [15]. The secondary beams of antiprotons were produced at many laboratories, such as CERN, BNL, KEK [16-19], and will be available at PANDA (antiproton annihilation experiment in construction at Darmstadt in Germany) for hypernuclear physics, charmonium physics and hadron spectroscopy. Experiments in antiproton physics are also planned at the future high-intensity heavy-ion accelerator facility (HIAF) in Huizhou, China [20].

    The antiproton production in heavy-ion collisions or proton induced reactions at deep subthreshold energies is related to the antiproton-nucleon interaction and also coupled to a number of reaction channels, e.g. the meson-baryon and baryon-baryon collisions, annihilation channels, charge-exchange reaction, elastic and inelastic collisions associated with antiprotons. There have been several approaches for describing the antiproton production, e.g. the fireball model [21], the first-chance nucleon-nucleon collision model [22], the quasicoherent multiparticle collision model [23], and the microscopic transport approaches [24-28]. These models can explain to some extent the antiproton spectra in proton-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus collisions. Self-consistent description of all possible channels that contribute to antiproton production is still needed, in particular of the secondary reactions with annihilation products.

    In this work, the microscopic mechanism of antiproton production in heavy-ion collisions at subthreshold energies is investigated with the Lanzhou quantum molecular dynamics (LQMD) transport model. The article is organized as follows. In Section 2, we give a brief description of the model of antiproton production. The calculated results and discussion are presented in Section 3. A summary and perspectives of antiproton physics are outlined in Section 4.

    In the Lanzhou quantum molecular dynamics (LQMD), the dynamics of resonances with masses below 2 GeV, hyperons (Λ, Σ, Ξ) and mesons (π, η, K, ¯K, ρ, ω), is associated with the mean-field potential and reaction channels, which are coupled in the hadron-hadron collisions, antibaryon-baryon annihilations, decay of resonances [29, 30]. The temporal evolution of all nucleons is described by Hamilton's equations of motion with self-consistently generated two-body interaction. However, the mean-field approach is used for the evolution of all hadrons produced in nucleon-nucleon collisions, which is a one-body interaction. In this work, the antiproton production in nucleon-nucleon collisions is implemented in the model. The antiproton-nucleon potential is evaluated from the dispersion relation as

    Vopt(p,ρ)=ω¯B(pi,ρi)p2+m2,

    (1)

    ω¯B(pi,ρi)=(m¯B+Σ¯BS)2+p2i+Σ¯BV,

    (2)

    with Σ¯BS=ΣBS and Σ¯BV=ΣBV. The nuclear scalar ΣNS and vector ΣNV self-energies are computed from the well-known relativistic mean-field model with the NL3 parameter [31]. The relativistic self-energies are used for the construction of hyperon and antibaryon potentials only. The nuclear density ρ is obtained from the phase-space density in the model. The antiproton evolves in the mean-field potential of the nuclear medium, which is similar to the Boltzmann-Uehling-Uhlenbeck transport model. Based on the results of the Giessen Boltzmann-Uehling-Uhlenbeck transport model [32], a factor ξ is introduced in order to control the strength of the phenomenological optical potential as Σ¯NS=ξΣNS and Σ¯NV=ξΣNV with ξ = 0.25, which leads to the strength of V¯N=164 MeV at the normal nuclear density ρ0 = 0.16 fm−3. The effective mass m¯p=ω¯B(p=0,ρ=ρ0) is used to evaluate the threshold energy for antiproton production, e.g. the threshold energy in the nucleon-nucleon collisions is sth=m¯p+3mN where mN is the nucleon mass.

    The production and decay of resonances in meson-baryon and baryon-baryon collisions have been implemented in the LQMD model [30], in which the strangeness and vector mesons are created via direct processes. The antiproton production is related to the pion-baryon and nucleon-baryon channels at the subthreshold energy (Eth = 5.62 GeV) as

    πBNp¯p,    BBNNp¯p.

    (3)

    The cross-sections in the pion-baryon and nucleon-baryon channels are evaluated in the same form as in Ref. [33]

    σπ(B)B¯pX(s)=a(ss01)b(s0s)c

    (4)

    with the parameters a=1 mb, b=2.31, c=2.3 , and a=0.12 mb, b=3.5, c=2.7 , for the pion and nucleon induced reactions, respectively. Isotropic distribution of the produced antiprotons is considered in the calculations.

    The annihilation reactions in antibaryon-baryon collisions are described by a statistical model with the SU(3) symmetry of pseudoscalar and vector mesons [34], which takes into account possible combinations in the final state of two to six mesons [35]. Besides the annihilation channels, the charge-exchange reaction (CEX), elastic (EL) and inelastic scattering with antibaryons are also implemented in the model as follows [36].

    ¯BBannihilation(π,η,ρ,ω,K,¯K,η,K,¯K,ϕ),¯BB¯BB(CEX,EL), ¯NN¯NΔ(¯ΔN), ¯BB¯YY.

    (5)

    Here, B stands for the nucleon and Δ(1232), Y(Λ, Σ, Ξ), K(K0, K+) and ¯K(¯K0, K). The line over B (Y) stands for the antiparticles. The cross-sections of these channels are based on the parametrization or extrapolation of the available experimental data. Pions are the main products of the annihilation reactions. The inverse processes in the pion-nucleon and pion-meson (π,ρ,ω) collisions contribute to the antiproton production. The pion-nucleon scattering forming a resonance is included in the LQMD model using the Breit-Wigner formula by fitting the available experimental data [37].

    Particles produced in heavy-ion collisions reveal the properties of high-density hadronic matter formed in the compression stage. In Fig. 1, we show the time evolution of mesons (π+, η, K+ and K), hyperons (Λ, Σ and Ξ), primordial antiprotons and antiprotons in the annihilation channels in central 28Si+28Si collisions at the incident energy of 3 GeV/nucleon in the laboratory frame. It is obvious that most particles are in equilibrium in the collision stage (after 20 fm/c), except K and annihilation antiprotons. The strangeness exchange process KNπY and annihilation reactions reduce the yields of K and antiprotons, respectively. Pions are the main products of the antiproton annihilation process. Therefore, pion induced reactions contribute to the production of strange particles. The primordial antiprotons with the multiplicity of 105 are reduced to about 4×107. Only about 4% of the primordial antiprotons can be emitted from the dense hadronic matter, which is consistent with the results of the relativistic Vlasov-Uehling-Uhlenbeck (RVUU) model [26]. It should be mentioned that meson-baryon collisions are not included in the RVUU model of antiproton production. The contribution of pion-nucleon collisions to the antiproton production is one third of the total antiproton yield.

    Figure 1

    Figure 1.  (color online) Temporal evolution of mesons, hyperons, primordial antiprotons and antiprotons produced in the annihilation channels in central 28Si+28Si collisions at the incident energy of 3 GeV/nucleon.

    Hadronic matter formed in heavy-ion collisions has been shown to be related to the reaction system. Heavy nuclei induced reactions enhance the baryon density in the colliding region, which enables subthreshold particle production and more pronounced in-medium effects. Systematic analysis is useful for reducing the uncertainties of some quantities, such as the in-medium cross-section and decay width. We calculated K+, K, primordial and annihilation antiprotons in central collisions of 12C+12C, 28Si+28Si, 40Ca+40Ca, 58Ni+58Ni, 112Sn+112Sn and 197Au+197Au at 2 GeV/nucleon, as shown in Fig. 2. It is obvious that the yields of K+ and primordial antiprotons increase monotonically with the mass number of the colliding system. Participant nucleons are available for particle production. However, a plateau appears for K and annihilation antiprotons because of the secondary collisions. The antiproton-nucleon potential and annihilation effects are analyzed in Fig. 3. The inclusion of the mean-field potential enhances antiproton production due to the reduction of the threshold energy. The fact that the antiproton yields in nucleus-nucleus collisions are underestimated without the correction of the threshold energy was also found in other models. On the other hand, the attractive ¯p-N potential leads to the rapid decrease of the antiproton production with increasing momentum. The contribution of the annihilation channel reduces the number of antiprotons, in particular in the domain of low momenta. The enhancement of subthreshold antiproton yields in deuteron induced reactions compared with proton-nucleus collisions was found at KEK [38]. The annihilation mechanism with high-intensity antiproton beams will be investigated by the PANDA experiment in the near future.

    Figure 2

    Figure 2.  Mass dependence of K+, K-, primordial antiprotons and annihilation antiprotons at the incident energy of 2 GeV/nucleon.

    Figure 3

    Figure 3.  (color online) Rapidity and transverse momentum spectra of primordial antiprotons and annihilation antiprotons in central 40Ca+40Ca collisions at the energy of 3 GeV/nucleon.

    The kinetic energy spectrum of the invariant cross-section reflects the properties of hadronic matter, i.e. the local temperature of particle emission, particle optical potential, nuclear equation of state, etc. In Fig. 4 , we show the inclusive spectra of antiprotons produced in the collisions of 28Si+28Si and 58Ni+58Ni at the respective incident energies of 2 GeV/nucleon and 1.85 GeV/nucleon compared with the available experimental data [39, 40]. The calculated results are consistent with the data when the annihilation channel is included. The primordial antiprotons are emitted in the early stage of the collisions. Annihilation considerably reduces the antiproton production in the whole energy range and leads to the creation of pions in the dense matter. The collisions of pions with the surrounding nucleons may produce antiprotons, and the multiple processes increase the antiproton production to some extent. The antiproton production in heavy-ion collisions is related to the collision centrality [41]. Central collisions increase the probability of annihilation. Consequently, antiproton yields do not obey a linear dependence on the collision centrality.

    Figure 4

    Figure 4.  Invariant spectra of antiprotons produced in collisions of 28Si+28Si and 58Ni+58Ni at the respective incident energies of 2 GeV/nucleon and 1.85 GeV/nucleon compared with the available experimental data [39, 40].

    Collective flows in heavy-ion collisions provide azimuthal correlations of emitted particles, which have been used for extracting the properties of high-density baryonic matter. The flow information can be extracted from the Fourier expansion in the phase space, i.e. expressed as dNdϕ(y,pt)=N0(1+2V1(y,pt)cos(ϕ)+2V2(y,pt)cos(2ϕ)+), where pt=p2x+p2y and y are the transverse momentum and the longitudinal rapidity along the beam direction, respectively. The directed (transverse) flow is defined as the first coefficient and expressed as V1=px/pt, which provides information about the azimuthal anisotropy of the transverse emission. The elliptic flow V2=(px/pt)2(py/pt)2 gives the competition between the in-plane (V2>0) and out-of-plane (V2<0, squeeze out) emissions. The brackets indicate averaging over all events in accordance with a specific class such as rapidity or transverse momentum cut. The transverse flows of nucleons, light clusters, pions and strange particles in heavy-ion collisions have been investigated for the high-density symmetry energy, in-medium NN cross-section, optical potentials of particles in nuclear matter, particle emission, etc. [8, 30]. To investigate the antiproton azimuthal distribution in the reaction plane, we calculated the spectra of π+, K+ and antiprotons produced in semi-central collisions of 58Ni+58Ni (b = 4 fm) at the incident energy of 3 GeV/nucleon, as shown in Fig. 5. It can be seen that the directed flows of π+, K+ and antiprotons are anti-correlated in comparison to protons. The anti-flow effect in antiproton emission is caused by the annihilation reactions, which enable antiproton absorption by surrounding nucleons (shadowing effect). Only the opposite evolution of antiprotons, away from nucleon emission, can escape from the collision zone and shows anti-correlation in the phase space. The phenomenon is very similar to π+ emission. The attractive ¯pN potential reduces anti-correlation. It is known that the repulsive potential leads to the anti-flow of K+[8]. The competition of the attractive KN and the strangeness exchange reaction KNπY contributes to K emission. The anti-correlation of directed flow of antiproton production in heavy-ion collisions was measured at AGS from the transverse momentum spectra [42].

    Figure 5

    Figure 5.  (color online) Rapidity distribution of directed flows of π+, K+, K and antiprotons produced in 58Ni+58Ni at the incident energy of 3 GeV/nucleon.

    In summary, the antiproton dynamics in heavy-ion collisions at deep subthreshold energies was investigated with the LQMD transport model. The collective effects in antiproton production in heavy-ion collisions are more pronounced than in proton induced reactions. The influence of the annihilation and the ¯p-N potential on antiproton production was analyzed thoroughly. The inclusion of the ¯p-N potential enhances the antiproton abundance because of the decrease of the threshold energy. The available experimental data for invariant spectra are reproduced well by the model after taking into account the contributions of the annihilation reactions and of the optical potential. The pion-nucleon channel slightly enhances the antiproton production. The directed flow of antiprotons is anti-correlated to the proton flow and is caused by the annihilation in the nuclear medium.

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  • [1] M. H. L. Pryce and S. Chapman, Proc. Royal Soc. A, 195: 62 (1948) doi: 10.1098/rspa.1948.0103
    [2] L. L. Foldy and S. A. Wouthuysen, Phys. Rev., 78: 29 (1950) doi: 10.1103/PhysRev.78.29
    [3] S. Tani, Prog. Theor. Phys., 6: 267 (1951) doi: 10.1143/ptp/6.3.267
    [4] L. L. Foldy, Phys. Rev., 87: 688 (1952) doi: 10.1103/PhysRev.87.688
    [5] K. M. Case, Phys. Rev., 95: 1323 (1954) doi: 10.1103/PhysRev.95.1323
    [6] J. Jayaraman, J. Phys. A: Math. Gen., 8: L1 (1975) doi: 10.1088/0305-4470/8/1/001
    [7] A. J. Silenko, Phys. Rev. A, 94: 032104 (2016) doi: 10.1103/PhysRevA.94.032104
    [8] W. Greiner, Relativistic Quantum Mechanics Wave Equations (Springer, 1990) pp. 277−290
    [9] A. A. Michelson and E. W. Morley, Philos. Mag. (Series 5), 24: 463 (1887) doi: 10.1080/14786448708628131
    [10] A. Sommerfeld, Sci. Nat., 28: 417 (1940) doi: 10.1007/BF01490583
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    [12] A. J. Silenko, J. Math. Phys., 44: 2952 (2003) doi: 10.1063/1.1579991
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    [14] K. Pachucki, Phys. Rev. A, 71: 012503 (2005) doi: 10.1103/PhysRevA.71.012503
    [15] K. Y. Bliokh, EPL, 72: 7 (2005) doi: 10.1209/epl/i2005-10205-1
    [16] P. Gosselin, A. Bérard, and H. Mohrbach, Eur. Phys. J. B, 58: 137 (2007) doi: 10.1140/epjb/e2007-00212-6
    [17] P. Gosselin, A. Bérard, H. Mohrbach, and S. Ghosh, Eur. Phys. J. C, 59: 883 (2009) doi: 10.1140/epjc/s10052-008-0839-4
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    [31] A. J. Silenko and O. V. Teryaev, Phys. Rev. D, 71: 064016 (2005) doi: 10.1103/PhysRevD.71.064016
    [32] P. Gosselin and H. Mohrbach, Eur. Phys. J. C, 71: 1739 (2011) doi: 10.1140/epjc/s10052-011-1739-6
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    [39] J. Q. Quach, Phys. Rev. D, 92: 084047 (2015) doi: 10.1103/PhysRevD.92.084047
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Yixin Guo and Haozhao Liang. Non-relativistic expansion of single-nucleon Dirac equation: Comparison between Foldy-Wouthuysen transformation andsimilarity renormalization group[J]. Chinese Physics C. doi: 10.1088/1674-1137/43/11/114105
Yixin Guo and Haozhao Liang. Non-relativistic expansion of single-nucleon Dirac equation: Comparison between Foldy-Wouthuysen transformation andsimilarity renormalization group[J]. Chinese Physics C.  doi: 10.1088/1674-1137/43/11/114105 shu
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Non-relativistic expansion of single-nucleon Dirac equation: Comparison between Foldy-Wouthuysen transformation andsimilarity renormalization group

    Corresponding author: Haozhao Liang, haozhao.liang@riken.jp
  • 1. Department of Physics, Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan
  • 2. RIKEN Nishina Center, Wako 351-0198, Japan
  • 3. Department of Modern Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China

Abstract: By following the Foldy-Wouthuysen (FW) transformation of the Dirac equation, we derive the exact analytic expression up to the 1/M4 order for general cases in the covariant density functional theory. The results are compared with the corresponding ones derived from another novel non-relativistic expansion method, the similarity renormalization group (SRG). Based on this comparison, the origin of the difference between the results obtained with the FW transformation and the SRG method is explored.

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    1.   Introduction
    • The Foldy-Wouthuysen (FW) transformation, also called the Pryce-Tani-Foldy-Wouthuysen transformation [14], was initially formulated around 1950 to describe the non-relativistic limit of relativistic electrons. A great advantage of the FW transformation is the simple form of operators corresponding to classical observables. This transformation for spin-1/2 particles was soon extended to the cases of spin-0 and spin-1 particles [5], and later generalized to the case of arbitrary spins [6]. Recently, the exact form of the exponential FW operator for a particle with an arbitrary spin was given in Ref. [7].

      The FW transformation is also an elegant method for non-relativistic expansion of the Dirac equation [8]. One milestone of its applications in atomic physics was that, using the FW transformation in the presence of external fields, the fine structure [9, 10], describing the splitting of spectral lines of atoms due to the electron spin and the relativistic corrections to the non-relativistic Schrödinger equation, was successfully testified [8].

      Due to its elegant and powerful scheme, the FW transformation has been applied in very diverse areas, such as electrodynamics [11, 12], atomic physics [13, 14], condensed matter physics [1517], optics [1820], acoustics [21], quantum chemistry [2227], nuclear physics [28, 29], quantum field theory [30], gravity [3134], in the theory of the weak interaction [35, 36], and even in the scheme of supersymmetric quantum mechanics [37]. In recent years, the FW transformation has also been discussed in a gravitational wave background of the generalized Dirac Hamiltonian in the non-relativistic limit [3840].

      Nevertheless, in most of the above studies and applications of the FW transformation, only the leading-order terms were derived and treated, such as the relativistic correction to the kinetic energy appearing up to the order of 1/M3 (with M the bare mass of the particle), and the correction due to the spin-orbit coupling and the Darwin term appearing in the order of 1/M2 [8]. Recently, the FW non-relativistic expansions have been carried out up to the order of 1/M7 [41], and even 1/M14 [42]. Nevertheless, such derivations are valid only for a family of potentials with certain properties.

      For systems of atomic nuclei, the covariant density functional theory [4345] is one of the state-of-the-art methodologies. During the past decades, it has achieved great success in describing various nuclear phenomena in both stable and exotic nuclei. In this theoretical framework, the equation of motion for nucleons is described by the Dirac equation which includes not only the strong vector potential V(r) , but also the strong scalar potential S(r), whose typical values are V(r)300 MeV and S(r)350 MeV, while the mass of nucleon is M=939 MeV. As a result, the non-relativistic expansion of the single-nucleon Dirac equation is non-trivial, and its high-order terms have to be derived and verified carefully.

      In 2012, Guo [46] applied the similarity renormalization group (SRG) [47, 48], instead of the FW transformation, for the non-relativistic expansion of the single-nucleon Dirac equation up to the 1/M3 order for investigating the nuclear pseudospin symmetry [49]. Using the SRG method, the Dirac Hamiltonian is gradually transformed into a diagonal form with the evolution controlled by the flow equation. As a result, the eigenequations for the upper and lower components of the Dirac spinors are decoupled at the end of the flow. Also, the non-relativistic reduced Hamiltonian thus obtained is Hermitian, and can also be expanded into the series in terms of 1/Mi. To achieve the accuracy of single-particle energies at the 0.1 MeV level, we demonstrated recently that the 1/M4-order terms are needed, and presented a detailed derivation and results in Ref. [50].

      Both the FW transformation and the SRG method provide a systematic way to carry out a non-relativistic expansion of the Dirac equation up to an arbitrary order. However, the FW transformation employs finite steps of unitary transformation, while the SRG method employs infinite infinitesimal unitary transformations along the flow. Therefore, it is interesting and important to investigate the similarities and differences between these two approaches.

      In this paper, we perform an exact non-relativistic expansion of the single-nucleon Dirac equation up to the 1/M4 order by using the FW transformation. We also investigate the difference between such results and those obtained by the SRG method.

      The paper is organized as follows. In Section 2.1, the SRG method is first recalled and the expansion up to the 1/M4 order is shown. The new expansion up to the same order using the FW transformation in a general case, such as the inclusion of the scalar potential, is derived in Section 2.2. The specific form of the result in spherical symmetry is presented in Section 3.1, and the difference between the SRG and FW results, as well as the origin of the difference, is investigated in Section 3.2. Finally, a summary and perspectives are given in Section 4.

    2.   Theoretical framework

      2.1.   Non-relativistic expansion by SRG

    • In the theoretical framework of covariant density functional theory [4345, 5156], the Dirac Hamiltonian for nucleons reads

      H=αp+β(M+S)+V,

      (1)

      where α and β are the Dirac matrices, M is the mass of the nucleon, and S and V are the scalar and vector potentials, respectively. In this section, we recall the technique of SRG [47, 48] and show the results up to the 1/M4 order [46, 50].

      The basic idea of SRG is that the Dirac Hamiltonian in Eq. (1) is transformed by a unitary operator U(l) as

      H(l)=U(l)HU(l),H(0)=H,

      (2)

      with a flow parameter l. While U(l) is not known explicitly, an anti-Hermitian generator η(l) related to U(l) as η(l)=dU(l)dlU(l) is chosen, and the Hamiltonian H(l) evolves with the differential flow equation

      dH(l)dl=[η(l),H(l)].

      (3)

      One of the convenient and appropriate choices of η(l) reads [48]

      η(l)=[βM,H(l)],

      (4)

      which transforms the Dirac Hamiltonian into a diagonal form.

      For solving Eq. (3), the Hamiltonian is first divided into two parts:

      H(l)=ε(l)+o(l),

      (5)

      according to the commutation and anti-commutation relations with respect to β, i.e., [ε,β]=0 and {o,β}=0. As a result,

      dε(l)dl=4Mβo2(l),

      (6a)

      do(l)dl=2Mβ[o(l),ε(l)],

      (6b)

      with the initial conditions

      ε(0)=β(M+S)+V,o(0)=αp.

      (7)

      Equations (6a) and (6b) can then be solved with the expansion into the series of 1/Mi [48], which gives

      ε(λ)M=i=0εi(λ)Mi,

      (8a)

      o(λ)M=j=1oj(λ)Mj,

      (8b)

      while the flow parameter is replaced by a dimensionless parameter λ=lM2. The solutions are obtained as [46]

      εn(λ)=εn(0)+4βλ0n1k=1ok(λ)onk(λ)dλ,

      (9a)

      on(λ)=on(0)e4λ+2βe4λλ0n1k=1[e4λok(λ),εnk(λ)]dλ,

      (9b)

      with the initial conditions,

      ε0(0)=β,ε1(0)=βS+V,εn(0)=0ifn

      (10)

      Therefore, at the end of the flow \lambda \rightarrow \infty , all the off-diagonal parts vanish, i.e., o_n(\infty) = 0 for all n. The diagonalized Dirac operator up to the 1/M^4 order is not difficult to obtain as [50]

      \begin{split} {\cal H}_{\rm SRG} =& \varepsilon(\infty) = M\varepsilon_0(\infty)+\varepsilon_1(\infty)+\frac{\varepsilon_2(\infty)}{M}+\frac{\varepsilon_3(\infty)}{M^2} +\frac{\varepsilon_4(\infty)}{M^3}+\frac{\varepsilon_5(\infty)}{M^4}+\cdots\\ =&M\varepsilon_0(0)+\varepsilon_1(0)+\frac{1}{2M}\beta o_1^2(0) +\frac{1}{8M^2}[[o_1(0),\varepsilon_1(0)],o_1(0)] +\frac{1}{32M^3}\beta\Big( {-4o_1^4(0)+[[o_1(0),\varepsilon_1(0)],\varepsilon_1(0)]o_1(0)} \\ & {+o_1(0)[[o_1(0),\varepsilon_1(0)],\varepsilon_1(0)] -2[o_1(0),\varepsilon_1(0)][o_1(0),\varepsilon_1(0)]} \Big) +\frac{1}{128M^4}\Big( {-9[[o_1(0),\varepsilon_1(0)],o_1^3(0)] +3[o_1(0),\varepsilon_1(0)]^2\varepsilon_1(0)} \\ &+3\varepsilon_1(0)[o_1(0),\varepsilon_1(0)]^2 -6[o_1(0),\varepsilon_1(0)]\varepsilon_1(0)[o_1(0),\varepsilon_1(0)]\\ & {+3[o_1(0)[o_1(0),\varepsilon_1(0)]o_1(0),o_1(0) +[[[[o_1(0),\varepsilon_1(0)],\varepsilon_1(0)],\varepsilon_1(0)],o_1(0)]} \Big) +\cdots \end{split}

      (11)
    • 2.2.   Non-relativistic expansion with the FW transformation

    • In this section, we perform the exact non-relativistic expansion of the single-nucleon Dirac equation up to the 1/M^4 order by using the FW transformation for a general case, in particular for the scalar potential.

      According to the FW transformation in the presence of external fields [2, 4, 8], the corresponding operators are defined as

      O = { \alpha} \cdot { p},\qquad \varepsilon = \beta S+V,\qquad \Lambda = -\frac{i}{2M}\beta O,

      (12)

      where the operators O and \varepsilon satisfy O \beta = -\beta O and \varepsilon \beta = \beta \varepsilon , respectively. The Hamiltonian (1) reads

      \begin{align} H = \beta M+O+\varepsilon. \end{align}

      (13)

      Based on the above definitions, the Dirac Hamiltonian is transformed by a unitary operation into [8]

      \begin{split} H' =&{\rm e}^{i\Lambda}H{\rm e}^{-i\Lambda} =H+i[\Lambda,H] +\frac{i^2}{2!}[\Lambda,[\Lambda,H]]\\& +\cdots +\frac{i^n}{n!}[\underbrace{\Lambda,[\Lambda,\cdots,[\Lambda}_n,H]\cdots]] +\cdots \end{split}

      (14)

      where

      \begin{split} \frac{i^n}{n!}[\underbrace{\Lambda,[\Lambda,\cdots,[\Lambda}_n,H]\cdots]] =& (-1)^{\textstyle\frac{n(n-1)}{2}}\frac{\beta^n}{n!M^n}(O^n\beta M+O^{n+1} \\& +\frac{1}{2^n}[\underbrace{O,[O,\cdots,[O}_n,\varepsilon]\cdots]]).\end{split}

      (15)

      Keeping all the terms up to the 1/M^n order, the unitary transformed Hamiltonian reads

      \begin{split} H'_{1/M^n} =& \beta M+\varepsilon+\sum \limits_{k = 1}^{n + 1} (-1)^{\textstyle\frac{(k-1)(k-2)}{2}}\frac{k-1}{k!M^{k-1}}\beta^{k-1}O^{k}\\ &+\sum \limits_{k = 0}^n (-1)^{\textstyle\frac{k(k-1)}{2}}\frac{\beta^k}{2^kk!M^k}[\underbrace{O,[O,\cdots,[O}_k,\varepsilon]\cdots]]. \end{split}

      (16)

      For example, the corresponding result up to the 1/M^4 order is

      \begin{split} H'_{1/M^4} =& \beta M +\varepsilon +\frac{1}{2M}\beta O^2 -\frac{1}{3M^2}O^3 -\frac{1}{8M^3}\beta O^4\\& +\frac{1}{30M^4}O^5 +\frac{1}{2M}\beta[O,\varepsilon] -\frac{1}{8M^2}[O,[O,\varepsilon]] \\& -\frac{1}{48M^3}\beta[O,[O,[O,\varepsilon]]] +\frac{1}{384M^4}[O,[O,[O,[O,\varepsilon]]]]. \end{split}

      (17)

      In the unitary transformed Hamiltonian, e.g., Eq. (17), the off-diagonal parts are not zero but raised by one order from O to \dfrac{1}{2M}\beta[O,\varepsilon] (plus higher-order terms). In order to make the off-diagonal parts vanish, more precisely speaking to make them higher than a given order, one should repeat the FW transformation until the accuracy is achieved [8]. For that purpose, the operators O and \varepsilon can be redefined according to Eq. (17), and one has

      \begin{split} \varepsilon' =& \varepsilon +\frac{1}{2M}\beta O^2 -\frac{1}{8M^2}[O,[O,\varepsilon]] -\frac{1}{8M^3}\beta O^4 \\&+\frac{1}{384M^4}[O,[O,[O,[O,\varepsilon]]]], \end{split} \tag{18a}

      (18a)

      \begin{split} O' =&\frac{1}{2M}\beta[O,\varepsilon] -\frac{1}{3M^2}O^3 -\frac{1}{48M^3}\beta[O,[O,[O,\varepsilon]]] \\& +\frac{1}{30M^4}O^5, \end{split}\tag{18b}

      (18b)

      \Lambda' =-\frac{i}{2M}\beta O'. \tag{18c}

      (18c)

      The corresponding FW transformation reads

      H'' = {\rm e}^{i\Lambda'} H' {\rm e}^{-i\Lambda'}.

      (19)

      It can be seen that the off-diagonal parts in H'' are of the order of 1/M^2 . Therefore, one should repeat this procedure to H''''' to make the off-diagonal parts of the order of 1/M^5 . Of course, to get the resultant diagonal parts in H''''' up to the 1/M^4 order, a recursion technique makes the calculation less complicated than it looks.

      As a result, the non-relativistic expansion with the FW transformation up to the 1/M^4 order reads

      \begin{split} {\cal H}_{\rm FW} =&\beta M +\varepsilon +\frac{1}{2M}\beta O^2 -\frac{1}{8M^2}[O,[O,\varepsilon]]-\frac{1}{8M^3}\beta O^4 \\&-\frac{1}{8M^3}\beta[O,\varepsilon][O,\varepsilon] +\frac{1}{384M^4}[O,[O,[O,[O,\varepsilon]]]] \\ &+\frac{1}{12M^4}[O^3,[O,\varepsilon]] +\frac{1}{32M^4}[O,\varepsilon][O,\varepsilon]\varepsilon\\& -\frac{1}{16M^4}[O,\varepsilon]\varepsilon[O,\varepsilon] +\frac{1}{32M^4}\varepsilon[O,\varepsilon][O,\varepsilon]. \end{split}

      (20)
    3.   Results and discussion

      3.1.   Results for spherical symmetry

    • For the systems with spherical symmetry, i.e., for spherical nuclei, the corresponding radial single-nucleon Dirac equation reads [4345]

      \left( \begin{array}{*{20}{c}} \Sigma(r)+M & -\dfrac{ {\rm d}}{ {\rm d}r}+\dfrac{\kappa}{r}\\ \dfrac{ {\rm d}}{ {\rm d}r}+\dfrac{\kappa}{r} & \Delta(r)-M \end{array} \right ) \left( \begin{array}{*{20}{c}} G(r) \\ F(r) \end{array} \right ) = E \left( \begin{array}{*{20}{c}} G(r) \\ F(r) \end{array} \right ),

      (21)

      where \kappa is a good quantum number defined as \kappa = \mp\; (j+{1}/{2}) for j = l\pm{1}/{2} , and \Sigma(r) = V(r) + S(r) and \Delta(r) = V(r) - S(r) are the sum and the difference of the vector and scalar potentials, respectively. The single-particle energy E = \varepsilon +M includes the mass of the nucleon. The operators \varepsilon and O read

      \varepsilon = {\left( \begin{array}{*{20}{c}} \Sigma(r) & 0\\ 0 & \Delta(r) \end{array} \right )},\quad O = {\left( \begin{array}{*{20}{c}} 0 &-\dfrac{ {\rm d}}{ {\rm d}r}+\dfrac{\kappa}{r}\\ \dfrac{ {\rm d}}{ {\rm d}r}+\dfrac{\kappa}{r}& 0 \end{array} \right )}.

      (22)

      According to Eq. (20), the Dirac Hamiltonian is transformed by the FW transformation as

      {\left( \begin{array}{*{20}{c}} {\cal H}^{\rm (F)}_{\rm FW} + M & O\bigg(\dfrac{1}{M^5}\bigg) \\ O\bigg(\dfrac{1}{M^5}\bigg) & {\cal H}^{\rm (D)}_{\rm FW} - M \end{array} \right)},

      (23)

      where the superscripts (F) and (D) represent the components of the Dirac Hamiltonian acting on single-particle states in the Fermi sea and Dirac sea, respectively. It is seen that the off-diagonal parts are not strictly zero, which is different from the results of SRG, but are of higher order than the required one. Focusing on single-particle states in the Fermi sea which correspond to their counterparts in the non-relativistic framework, the explicit expansion of {\cal H}^{\rm (F)}_{\rm FW} up to the 1/M^4 order is worked out in detail as

      {\cal H}^{\rm (F)}_{0, {\rm FW}} = \Sigma(r), \tag{24a}

      (24a)

      {\cal H}^{\rm (F)}_{1, {\rm FW}} = \frac{1}{2M}p^2, \tag{24b}

      (24b)

      {\cal H}^{\rm (F)}_{2, {\rm FW}} = \frac{1}{8M^2}\left( {-4Sp^2 +4S'\frac{ {\rm d}}{ {\rm d}r} -2\frac{\kappa}{r}\Delta' +\Sigma''} \right),\tag{24c}

      (24c)

      \begin{split} {\cal H}^{\rm (F)}_{3, {\rm FW}} =& \frac{1}{8M^3}\left( {-p^4 +4S^2p^2 -8SS'\frac{ {\rm d}}{ {\rm d}r}-2S\Sigma'' }\right.\\&\left.{+4S\Delta'\frac{\kappa}{r} +\Sigma'\Delta'} \right),\end{split}\tag{24d}

      (24d)

      \begin{split} {\cal H}^{\rm (F)}_{4, {\rm FW}} =&\frac{1}{384M^4}\bigg\{144Sp^4 -288S'p^2\frac{ {\rm d}}{ {\rm d}r} +\left[ {72\Delta'\frac{\kappa}{r}}\right.\\&\left.{-24(4\Sigma''+9S'')-192S^3} \right]p^2 +\left[ {72\Delta'\frac{\kappa}{r^2} }\right.\\&\left.{-72\Delta''\frac{\kappa}{r} +24(3S'''+4\Sigma''') +576S^2S'} \right]\frac{ {\rm d}}{ {\rm d}r} \\ &+\left[ {-12(5\Sigma'\!-\!36S')\frac{\kappa(\kappa+1)}{r^3} \!+\!12(5\Sigma''\!+\!12S'')\frac{\kappa(\kappa+1)}{r^2}}\right.\\&\left.{ -72\Delta'\frac{\kappa}{r^3} +72\Delta''\frac{\kappa}{r^2}} {-36\Delta'''\frac{\kappa}{r} -288S^2\Delta'\frac{\kappa}{r} +33\Sigma'''' }\right.\\&\left.{+144S^2\Sigma'' +24S\Sigma'(2\Sigma'-6\Delta')} \right]\bigg\}, \end{split}\tag{24e}

      (24e)

      where

      p^2 = -\frac{ {\rm d}^2}{ {\rm d}r^2}+\frac{\kappa(\kappa+1)}{r^2},

      (25)

      and

      \begin{split} p^4 =& \frac{ {\rm d}^4}{ {\rm d}r^4} -2\frac{\kappa(\kappa+1)}{r^2}\frac{ {\rm d}^2}{ {\rm d}r^2} +4\frac{\kappa(\kappa+1)}{r^3}\frac{ {\rm d}}{ {\rm d}r}\\& +\frac{\kappa(\kappa+1)(\kappa+3)(\kappa-2)}{r^4}. \end{split}

      (26)

      In contrast, the Dirac Hamiltonian transformed by the SRG method reads

      {\left( \begin{array}{*{20}{c}} {\cal H}^{\rm (F)}_{\rm SRG} + M & 0 \\ 0 & {\cal H}^{\rm (D)}_{\rm SRG} - M \end{array} \right)}.

      (27)

      Its off-diagonal parts strictly vanish up to infinite order. According to Eqs. (11), the explicit expansion of {\cal H}^{\rm (F)}_{\rm SRG} up to the 1/M^4 order reads [50]

      {\cal H}^{\rm (F)}_{0, {\rm SRG}} = \Sigma(r),\tag{28a}

      (28a)

      {\cal H}^{\rm (F)}_{1, {\rm SRG}} = \frac{1}{2M}p^2, \tag{28b}

      (28b)

      {\cal H}^{\rm (F)}_{2, {\rm SRG}} = \frac{1}{8M^2}\left( {-4Sp^2 +4S'\frac{ {\rm d}}{ {\rm d}r}-2\frac{\kappa}{r}\Delta' +\Sigma''} \right), \tag{28c}

      (28c)

      \begin{split} {\cal H}^{\rm (F)}_{3, {\rm SRG}} =&\frac{1}{32M^3}\left( {-4p^4 +16S^2p^2-32SS'\frac{ {\rm d}}{ {\rm d}r}-8S\Sigma'' }\right.\\&\left.{+16S\Delta'\frac{\kappa}{r} -2\Sigma'^2 +4\Sigma'\Delta'} \right), \end{split}\tag{28d}

      (28d)

      \begin{split} {\cal H}^{\rm (F)}_{4, {\rm SRG}} =& \frac{1}{128M^4} \bigg\{ 48Sp^4 - 96S'p^2\frac{{\rm d}}{{\rm d}r} \\& +\left[ {24\Delta'\frac{\kappa}{r} - 24(\Sigma''+3S'')}-64S^3 \right] p^2 \\& +\left[ {24\Delta'\frac{\kappa}{r^2} -24\Delta''\frac{\kappa}{r} +24(S'''+\Sigma''')}+192S^2S' \right]\frac{{\rm d}}{ {\rm d}r} \end{split}

      \begin{split} \\& +\bigg[ {-12(\Sigma'-12S')\frac{\kappa(\kappa+1)}{r^3}}\\ & {+12(\Sigma''+4S'')\frac{\kappa(\kappa+1)}{r^2} -24\Delta'\frac{\kappa}{r^3} +24\Delta''\frac{\kappa}{r^2}} \\& { {-12\Delta'''\frac{\kappa}{r} -96S^2\Delta'\frac{\kappa}{r} +9\Sigma'''' +48S^2\Sigma''}}\\&{{+24S\Sigma'(\Sigma'-2\Delta')} \bigg]} \bigg\}. \end{split} \tag{28e}

      (28e)
    • 3.2.   Comparison between FW and SRG approaches

    • By comparing Eqs. (11) and (20), it is found that

      {\cal H}_{0,{\rm SRG}} - {\cal H}_{0,{\rm FW}} =0, \tag{29a}

      (29a)

      {\cal H}_{1,{\rm SRG}} - {\cal H}_{1,{\rm FW}} =0, \tag{29b}

      (29b)

      {\cal H}_{2,{\rm SRG}} - {\cal H}_{2,{\rm FW}} = 0, \tag{29c}

      (29c)

      {\cal H}_{3,{\rm SRG}} - {\cal H}_{3,{\rm FW}} = \frac{\beta}{32M^3}[[O^2,\varepsilon], \varepsilon], \tag{29d}

      (29d)

      \begin{split}{\cal H}_{4,{\rm SRG}} - {\cal H}_{4,{\rm FW}} =&\frac{1}{64M^4}[[O^2,\varepsilon], O^2] \\& +\frac{1}{128M^4}\left[\left([\varepsilon^2,O^2]-2[\varepsilon, O\varepsilon O]\right),\varepsilon\right].\end{split} \tag{29e}

      (29e)

      This result seems to indicate that the FW transformation and the SRG method agree with each other up to the 1/M^2 order, but they lead to different results starting from the 1/M^3 order. However, considering the infinite mass limit M \rightarrow \infty , all expressions should be strictly organized order by order, and thus the difference between Eqs. (27) and (23) in the 1/M^5 order cannot lead to the differences of the results in the 1/M^3 and 1/M^4 orders. This puzzle needs to be further investigated.

      It turns out that the difference shown in Eq. (29) comes from an additional unitary transformation, after the Dirac Hamiltonian is decoupled into the upper and lower parts. Let

      \Xi = -\frac{i\beta}{32M^3}[O^2, \varepsilon] - \frac{i}{128M^4}\left([\varepsilon^2,O^2]-2[\varepsilon, O\varepsilon O]\right).

      (30)

      This is a Hermitian and diagonal operator, i.e., \Xi^{†}= \Xi and \beta\Xi = \Xi\beta . Acting an additional unitary transformation on {\cal H}_{\rm FW} , it reads

      {\rm e}^{i\Xi}\, {\cal H}_{\rm FW}\, {\rm e}^{-i\Xi} = {\cal H}_{\rm FW} + i [\Xi, {\cal H}_{\rm FW}] + \cdots

      (31)

      Keeping all terms up to the 1/M^4 order, the result is

      \begin{split} {\rm e}^{i\Xi}\, {\cal H}_{\rm FW}\, {\rm e}^{-i\Xi} =&{\cal H}_{\rm FW} + \frac{\beta}{32M^3}[[O^2,\varepsilon], \varepsilon] + \frac{1}{64M^4}[[O^2,\varepsilon], O^2] \\& +\frac{1}{128M^4}\left[\left([\varepsilon^2,O^2]-2[\varepsilon, O\varepsilon O]\right),\varepsilon\right], \end{split}

      (32)

      which is nothing else but {\cal H}_{\rm SRG} .

      In the spherical case, the explicit expressions for operators \dfrac{\beta}{32M^3}[[O^2,\varepsilon], \varepsilon] , \dfrac{1}{64M^4}[[O^2,\varepsilon], O^2] , and \dfrac{1}{128M^4} \left[\left([\varepsilon^2,O^2]-2[\varepsilon, O\varepsilon O]\right),\varepsilon\right] , acting on single-particle states in the Fermi sea, respectively read

      -\frac{1}{16M^3} {\Sigma'}^2, \tag{33a}

      (33a)

      \frac{1}{64M^4} \left[ {4\Sigma'' p^2 - 4\Sigma'''\frac{\rm d}{{\rm d}r} + 4\Sigma'\frac{\kappa(\kappa+1)}{r^3} - 4\Sigma''\frac{\kappa(\kappa+1)}{r^2} - \Sigma'''' } \right], \tag{33b}

      (33b)

      \frac{1}{16M^4} S {\Sigma'}^2. \tag{33c}

      (33c)

      These equations explain the difference between Eqs. (24d) and (28d), as well as between Eqs. (24h) and (28h).

      Since {\rm e}^{-i\Xi} is an additional unitary transformation acting on the already decoupled Hamiltonian, it does not affect the non-relativistic expansion of the Dirac equation, and the single-particle spectra obtained by the FW transformation and the SRG method are the same.

      The unitary transformation {\rm e}^{-i\Xi} is equivalent to a rotation in a linear and closed complex space, and in quantum mechanics, the operation or rotation in such a space should be associated with a corresponding generator. However, in the present context, it is nontrivial to write down a general expression for such a generator, or derive a conserved quantity that is asymptotically related to a generator up to an arbitrary order. This is because the number of unitary transformations from the FW results to the SRG ones would in principle be infinite, since the SRG method employs infinite infinitesimal unitary transformations along the flow. Therefore, the physics behind the introduced unitary transformation is open for future studies.

    4.   Summary and perspectives
    • In this work, we investigated the non-relativistic expansion of the single-nucleon Dirac equation in the theoretical framework of covariant density functional theory for a general case where the scalar potential is included. We worked out the exact analytical expansion up to the 1/M^4 order using the FW transformation. A further investigation of the difference between Eqs. (27) and (23) explained the puzzle that a disagreement seems to appear between the results obtained with the FW transformation and the SRG method, i.e. the non-relativistic expansion of the Dirac equation is affected, but the single-particle spectra obtained by the FW transformation and the SRG method are the same.

      The non-relativistic expansion of the Dirac equation for nuclear systems using the FW transformation has been extended to as high orders as needed. Similarly to the SRG method, we anticipate that this novel non-relativistic expansion method will establish in future studies a potential bridge between the relativistic and non-relativistic density functional theories. In particular, with the present FW transformation, all unitary transformations involved are in an explicit form. This leads in a straightforward way to the corresponding transformations of the other relevant operators, such as the one-body density operators.

Reference (56)

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