Physics

Shihang Shen, Serdar Elhatisari, Dean Lee, Ulf-G. Meißner, Zhengxue Ren

2026.3.7Particles

DOI: 10.3390/particles9010025

Abstract

We present an \textit{ab initio} study of the one-neutron halo nucleus $^{11}$Be using nuclear lattice effective field theory with high-fidelity chiral interactions at N3LO. By employing the wavefunction matching method to mitigate the sign problem and the pinhole algorithm to sample many-body correlations, we successfully reproduce the ground-state parity inversion and the extended matter radius characteristic of the halo structure. We analyze the intrinsic density distributions and geometric shapes of $^{11}$Be in comparison with the core nucleus $^{10}$Be. Our results reveal a prominent two-cluster structure in both nuclei and the occupation of the $\sigma$ molecular orbital by the valence neutron in $^{11}$Be. It enhances the prolate deformation as well as the diffuse neutron tail, distinct from the $\pi$-orbital occupation observed in the $^{10}$Be ground state.

Citation format

SHEN, Shihang, et al. Ab initio study of the halo structure in $^{11}$be [preprint]. arXiv, 2026. arXiv:2603.06978.