Three-body coupled channel framework for two-neutron halo nuclei

Abstract

We study the Borromean nuclei formed by a core nucleus and two neutrons in a nonrelativistic effective field theory formalism considering both neutron-neutron and neutron-core interactions. We provide formulae of the charge and matter radii, and successfully reproduce the universal relation proposed by Hongo and Son based on the approximation of an infinite neutron-neutron scattering length and neglecting the neutron-core scattering. Once the realistic finite neutron-neutron and neutron-core scattering lengths are used, the charge and matter radii are influenced by the neutron-core channel in a growingly relevant manner. We obtain a relation among the binding energy of the three-body Borromean system, the ratio between charge and matter radii, and the ratio between the neutron-neutron and core-neutron scattering lengths. We find that the two-neutron separation energy for $^{22}$C needs to be $\lesssim 2$ keV in order to be consistent with the experimental constraints of the matter radius of $^{22}$C and the $^{20}{\rm C}\,n$ $S$-wave scattering length.