# 1 Energy per nucleon for symmetric nuclear matter. The dashed curve is the result of the original QMC. The solid curve is for the QMC with short-range correlations (QMCs). The region enclosed with the dotted curves is the empirical equation of state [].

ADP-99-6/T351

A quark-meson coupling model with short-range quark-quark correlations

K. Saito<sup>*</sup><sup>*</sup>*ksaito@nucl.phys.tohoku.ac.jp

Physics Division, Tohoku College of Pharmacy

Sendai 981-8558, Japan

K. Tsushimaktsushim@physics.adelaide.edu.au and A.W. Thomasathomas@physics.adelaide.edu.au

Special Research Center for the Subatomic Structure of Matter

and Department of Physics and Mathematical Physics

The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia

## Abstract

Short-range quark-quark correlations are introduced into the quark-meson coupling (QMC) model in a simple way. The effect of these correlations on the structure of the nucleon in dense nuclear matter is studied. We find that the short-range correlations may serve to reduce a serious problem associated with the modified quark-meson coupling model (within which the bag constant is allowed to decrease with increasing density), namely the tendency for the size of the bound nucleon to increase rapidly as the density rises. We also find that, with the addition of correlations, both QMC and modified QMC are consistent with the phenomenological equation of state at high density.   
PACS numbers: 21.65.+f, 21.30.-x, 24.10.Jv, 12.39.Ba   
Keywords: nuclear matter, quark-meson coupling model, short-range correlations, quark structure effects

About a decade ago, Guichon  proposed a relativistic quark model for nuclear matter, where it consists of non-overlapping nucleon bags bound by the self-consistent exchange of scalar ($`\sigma `$) and vector ($`\omega `$) mesons in mean-field approximation (MFA). This model has been further developed as the quark-meson coupling (QMC) model, and applied to various phenomena in nuclear physics (for recent reviews, see Ref.). Recently, Jin and Jennings  have proposed an alternative version of QMC (called the modified QMC, MQMC), where the bag constant is allowed to decrease as a function of density.

So far, the use of the QMC model has been limited to the region of small to moderate densities, because it has been assumed that the nucleon bags do not overlap. It is therefore of great interest to explore ways to extend the model to include short-range quark-quark correlations, which may occur when nucleon bags overlap at high density. In this paper we will introduce these short-range correlations in a very simple way, and calculate their effect on the quark structure of the nucleon in medium. We refer to this model as the quark-meson coupling (or modified quark-meson coupling) model with short-range correlations (QMCs (or MQMCs)).

Let us consider uniformly distributed (iso-symmetric) nuclear matter with density $`\rho _B`$. At high density the nucleon bags start to overlap with each other, and a quark in one nucleon may interact with quarks in other nucleons in the overlapping region. Since the interaction between the quarks is short range, it seems reasonable to treat it in terms of contact interactions. An additional interaction term of the form, $`_{int}_{ij}\overline{\psi }_q(i)\mathrm{\Gamma }_\alpha \psi _q(i)\overline{\psi }_q(j)\mathrm{\Gamma }^\alpha \psi _q(j)`$, may then be added to the original QMC Lagrangian density . Here $`\psi _q(i)`$ is a quark field in the $`i`$-th nucleon and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\alpha `$ stands for $`1,\gamma _5,\gamma _\mu ,\gamma _5\gamma _\mu `$ or $`\sigma _{\mu \nu }`$ (with or without the isospin and color generators). (For the present we consider only u and d quarks.) In MFA most of these terms vanish in a static, spin saturated, uniform system because of rotational symmetry, parity etc. We shall retain only the dominant MFA contributions, namely the scalar- and vector-type interactions: $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\alpha =1`$ and $`\gamma _0`$.

Next we consider the probability for the nucleon bags to overlap, using a simple geometrical approach. Let us first consider a collection of rigid balls, with a radius $`R_c`$. In the close-packed structure of nuclear matter we find that the effective volume per ball is given by $`V_c=4\sqrt{2}R_c^3`$. The corresponding density, $`\rho _c`$, is then given by the inverse of $`V_c`$, and hence the radius of the rigid ball is related to the density as $`R_c=1/(4\sqrt{2}\rho _c)^{1/3}`$. Returning to our problem, we see that for a given nuclear density $`\rho _B`$, if the nucleon bag radius, $`R`$, which is given by solving the nuclear matter problem self-consistently, is larger than $`R_c(=1/(4\sqrt{2}\rho _B)^{1/3})`$ the nucleons will overlap. If $`RR_c`$, there is no overlap. Of course, one could build a more sophisticated model, allowing for nucleon motion and nucleon-nucleon correlations , but we believe that the present model is sufficient for an initial investigation.

Now consider two nucleon bags separated by a distance $`d`$ in nuclear matter. They will overlap for $`d<2R`$ and the common volume is then given by $`V_{ov}=V_N(13y/4+y^3/16)`$ , where $`V_N`$ is the nucleon volume ($`=4\pi R^3/3`$) and $`y=d/R`$. It is natural to choose the probability of overlap, $`p`$, to be proportional to $`V_{ov}/V_N`$:

$$p(y)1\frac{3y}{4}+\frac{y^3}{16}.$$
(1)   
Of course, this choice is quite model-dependent. In principle we could use an arbitrary, smooth function, which goes to unity at $`y=0`$ and zero beyond $`y=2`$ and which respects the three dimensional geometry of this problem. In this exploratory study, we take this simple form as an example.

In mean-field approximation the Dirac equation for a quark field in a nucleon bag is given by

$$[i\gamma (m_qg_\sigma ^q\sigma +f_s^q\overline{\psi }_q\psi _q)(g_\omega ^q\omega +f_v^q\psi _q^{}\psi _q)\gamma _0]\psi _q=0,$$
(2)   
where $`m_q`$ is the bare quark mass, $`\sigma `$ and $`\omega `$ are the mean-field values of the $`\sigma `$ and $`\omega `$ mesons and $`g_\sigma ^q`$ and $`g_\omega ^q`$ are, respectively, the $`\sigma `$\- and $`\omega `$-quark coupling constants in the usual QMC model . The new coupling constants, $`f_{s(v)}^q`$, have been introduced for the scalar (vector)-type short-range correlations, and are given by (see Eq.(1))

$$f_{s(v)}^q=\frac{\overline{f}_{s(v)}^q}{M^2}\times (1\frac{3y}{4}+\frac{y^3}{16})\theta (y)\theta (2y).$$
(3)   
We have also taken $`y=d/R`$, with $`d`$ the average distance between two neighbouring nucleons at a given nuclear density $`\rho _B`$ – i.e., as explained above, $`d=2R_c=2/(4\sqrt{2}\rho _B)^{1/3}`$. Note that since the coupling constants have dimension of (energy)<sup>-2</sup> we introduce new, dimensionless coupling constants, $`\overline{f}_s^q`$ and $`\overline{f}_v^q`$ by dividing by the free nucleon mass ($`M=939`$ MeV) squared. (If the coupling strength is positive the correlation gives a repulsive force.) In Eq.(2), $`\overline{\psi }_q\psi _q`$ and $`\psi _q^{}\psi _q`$ are, respectively, the average values of the quark scalar density and quark density with respect to the nuclear ground state, which are approximately given by the values at the center of the nucleon in local density approximation  (we will revisit this later).

Now we can solve the Dirac equation, Eq.(2), as in the usual QMC, with the effective quark mass

$$m_q^{}=m_qg_\sigma ^q\sigma +f_s^q\overline{\psi }_q\psi _q,$$
(4)   
instead of the bare quark mass. The Lorentz vector interaction shifts the nucleon energy in the medium :

$$ϵ(\stackrel{}{k})=\sqrt{M^2+\stackrel{}{k}^2}+3(g_\omega ^q\omega +f_v^q\psi _q^{}\psi _q),$$
(5)   
where $`M^{}`$ is the effective nucleon mass, which is given by the usual bag energy

$$M^{}=\frac{3\mathrm{\Omega }z}{R}+\frac{4}{3}\pi BR^3.$$
(6)   
Here $`B`$ and $`z`$ are respectively the bag constant and usual parameter which accounts for zero-point motion and gluon fluctuations . The quark energy, $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ (in units of $`1/R`$), is defined by $`\sqrt{x^2+(Rm_q^{})^2}`$, where $`x`$ is the lowest eigenvalue of the quark, which is given by the usual boundary condition at the bag surface .

The total energy per nucleon at density $`\rho _B`$ is then expressed as

$`E_{tot}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{4}{(2\pi )^3\rho _B}}{\displaystyle ^{k_F}}𝑑\stackrel{}{k}\sqrt{M^2+\stackrel{}{k}^2}+3(g_\omega ^q\omega +f_v^q\psi _q^{}\psi _q)`$ (7)   
$`+`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2\rho _B}}(m_\sigma ^2\sigma ^2m_\omega ^2\omega ^2),`$   
where $`k_F`$ is the Fermi momentum, and $`m_\sigma `$ and $`m_\omega `$ are respectively the $`\sigma `$ and $`\omega `$ meson masses. The $`\omega `$ field created by the uniformly distributed nucleons is determined by baryon number conservation: $`\omega =3g_\omega ^q\rho _B/m_\omega ^2=g_\omega \rho _B/m_\omega ^2`$ (where $`g_\omega =3g_\omega ^q`$), while the $`\sigma `$ field is given by the thermodynamic condition: $`(E_{tot}/\sigma )=0`$. This gives the self-consistency condition (SCC) for the $`\sigma `$ field :

$$\sigma =\frac{4}{(2\pi )^3m_\sigma ^2}\left(\frac{M^{}}{\sigma }\right)^{k_F}𝑑\stackrel{}{k}\frac{M^{}}{\sqrt{M^2+\stackrel{}{k}^2}},$$
(8)   
where

$$\left(\frac{M^{}}{\sigma }\right)=3g_\sigma ^qS_N(\sigma )=g_\sigma C_N(\sigma ).$$
(9)   
Here $`g_\sigma =3g_\sigma ^qS_N(0)`$ and $`C_N(\sigma )=S_N(\sigma )/S_N(0)`$, with the quark scalar charge defined by $`S_N(\sigma )=_{bag}𝑑\stackrel{}{r}\overline{\psi }_q\psi _q`$. We should note that because the scalar-type correlation does not directly involve the $`\sigma `$ field the SCC is not modified by it. However, the correlations do affect the $`\sigma `$ field through the quark wave function.

In actual calculations, the quark density, $`\psi _q^{}\psi _q`$, in the total energy, Eq.(7), may be replaced by $`3\rho _B`$, and the quark scalar density, contributing to the effective quark mass, $`m_q^{}`$, is approximately given as $`\overline{\psi }_q\psi _q=(m_\sigma ^2/g_\sigma )\sigma `$ because of the SCC (see also Ref.).

Now we present the numerical results. First, we choose $`m_q`$ = 5 MeV and the bag radius of the nucleon in free space, $`R_0`$, to be 0.8 fm. We calculate the matter propereties using not only QMC but also MQMC. For the latter we take a simple variation of the bag constant in the medium to illustrate the role of the short-range correlations: $`(B/B_0)^{1/4}=\mathrm{exp}(g_\sigma ^B\sigma /M)`$ with $`g_\sigma ^B`$ = 2.8  and the bag constant in free space, $`B_0`$. In both models, the bag constant (in free space) and $`z`$ parameter are determined to fit the free nucleon mass with $`R_0`$ = 0.8 fm. We find $`B_0^{1/4}`$ = 170.0 MeV (in QMC, $`B=B_0`$ at all densities) and $`z`$ = 3.295. The coupling constants, $`g_\sigma `$ and $`g_\omega `$, are determined so as to reproduce the binding energy ($`15.7`$ MeV) at the saturation density ($`\rho _0`$ = 0.15 fm<sup>-3</sup>). We find that $`g_\sigma ^2`$ = 67.80 and $`g_\omega ^2`$ = 66.71 for QMC and $`g_\sigma ^2`$ = 35.69 and $`g_\omega ^2`$ = 80.68 for MQMC. Note that the matter properties at $`\rho _0`$ in both models with short-range correlations are identical to those of the original models . This is because, in our simple geometric approach, the effect of nucleon overlap starts beyond $`\rho _0`$ (see below).

In Figs.1 and 2, we present the total energies per nucleon for QMC and MQMC, respectively. We determine the coupling constant, $`\overline{f}_v^q`$, so as to reproduce the empirical value of the energy around $`\rho _B/\rho _0=2.54`$ . This yields the value $`\overline{f}_v^q`$ = 300 for QMCs and $`\overline{f}_v^q`$ = 10 for MQMCs. (Note that in MQMCs the overlap probability is much larger than that in QMCs at the same density because the bag radius in MQMC increases very rapidly at finite density. This is the reason why the strength of $`\overline{f}_v^q`$ for MQMCs is much weaker than that in QMCs.) For the strength of the scalar-type correlation, since we have no definite guideline, we take the same value in both models: $`\overline{f}_s^q`$ = 200 (as an illustration). From the figures we can see that the nucleon overlap starts around $`\rho _B/\rho _0`$ 2.7 or 1.3 for QMCs and MQMCs, respectively. The empirical energies at high densities (the region enclosed with the dotted curves in Figs. 1 and 2 ) are well reproduced in both models (in particular, in MQMCs) if the short-range correlations are considered.

In Fig.3, we show the change of the nucleon mass in matter. We can see that the effect of the short-range correlations on the mass is not strong. Correspondingly, the strength of the $`\sigma `$ field in matter is not much altered by the correlations.

In Fig.4, we present the variation of the quark eigenvalue. In QMCs, the effect of the short-range correlations is weak, while in MQMCs the effect becomes very large as the nuclear density increases and the nucleons overlap more and more. Since we chose a repulsive scalar-type correlation, the effective quark mass in QMCs or MQMCs becomes larger than that in the original model as the density grows. This leads to a larger eigenvalue in QMCs or MQMCs. As a consequence of this repulsive correlation a solution for the quark eigenvalue in MQMCs can be found even beyond $`\rho _B/\rho _0`$ 3.

Turning next to the size of the nucleon itself, as measured by the bag radius, we see in Fig.5 that the effect of the short-range correlations can be very significant. While the effect is small in QMCs, in MQMCs the bag radius starts to shrink as soon as the nucleons begin to overlap. We find a similar effect on the root mean square radius of the quark wave function. In the original MQMC it is well known that there is a serious problem concerning the bag radius. In particular, it grows rapidly at high density  because of the decrease of the bag constant. However, as we can see from the figure, the inclusion of a repulsive (scalar-type) short-range correlation yields a remarkable improvement for the in-medium nucleon size in MQMC.

In summary, we have studied (in mean-field approximation) the effect of short-range quark-quark correlations associated with nucleon overlap. We have found that the empirical equation of state at high density can be very well reproduced using a repulsive vector-type correlation. Furthermore, we have shown that a repulsive scalar-type correlation can counteract the tendency for the in-medium nucleon size to increase in MQMC. This may prove to be a significant improvement because there are fairly strong experimental constraints on the possible increase in nucleon size in-medium . While our inclusion of correlations has been based on quite simple, geometrical considerations, in the future we would hope to formulate the problem in a more sophisticated, dynamical way  and to use it to study the properties of finite nuclei (including hyper nuclei ).

This work was supported by the Australian Research Council and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.