In-medium bound states and pairing gap

Abstract

The propagator of two nucleons in infinite nuclear matter is evaluated by a diagonalization of the $pphh$ RPA Hamiltonian. This effective Hamiltonian is non-Hermitian and, for specific density domains and partial waves, yields pairs of complex conjugated eigenvalues representing in-medium bound states of two nucleons. The occurrence of these complex poles in the two-particle Greens function is tightly related to the well known BCS pairing approach. It is demonstrated that these complex eigenvalues and the corresponding bound state wavefunctions contain all information about the BCS gap function. This is illustrated by calculations for $^1S_0$ and $^3PF_2$ pairing gaps in neutron matter which essentially coincide with the corresponding gap functions extracted from conventional solutions of the gap equation. Differences between the bound states in the conventional BCS approach and the $pphh$ RPA are arising in the case of $^3SD_1$ channel in symmetric nuclear matter at low densities. These differences are discussed in the context of transition from BEC for quasi-deuterons to the formation of BCS pairing.