Unnuclear matter at large charge
Phys. Rev. D 112, 014028 – Published 16 July, 2025
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/5mvy-4p7q
Abstract
The utility of the non-relativistic large-charge effective field theory (EFT) for physical systems, and neutron matter, in particular, relies on controlled Schrödinger-symmetry breaking deformations due to scattering length and effective-range effects in the two-body system. A recently found exact solution of the large-charge system is used to compute these effects for two-point correlation functions of large-charge operators in perturbation theory around the large-charge ground state. Notably, the leading effective-range effects are found to enter at second order in the effective range, in agreement with analogous calculations in the three-body system. The Schrödinger-symmetry breaking deformations are used—together with input from quantum Monte Carlo simulation—to address the range of validity of the EFT with deformations both in general and in the special case of neutron matter. In particular, it is found that nuclear reactions with up to six low-energy neutrons in the final state can be described by the large-charge EFT with Schrödinger-symmetry breaking.
