Spatial correlation of a particle-hole pair with a repulsive isovector interaction

Abstract

We study the spatial correlation of a particle-hole pair in the isovector channel in $^{56}$Co and $^{40}$K nuclei. To this end, we employ the Hartree-Fock+Tamm-Dancoff approximation with the Skyrme interaction. We find a large concentration of the two-body density at positions where the neutron particle and the proton hole states locate on the opposite side to each other with respect to the core nucleus. This feature originates from a repulsive nature of the isovector residual interaction, which is in stark contrast to the dineutron correlation with an attractive pairing interaction between the valence neutrons discussed e.g., in $^{11}$Li and $^6$He. A possible experimental implication of the repulsive correlation is also discussed.