Four-neutron halo model at the unitary limit

Abstract

In some neutron-rich nuclei usually treated as two-neutron halos, the core can itself be resolved into a subcore-neutron-neutron subsystem, so that four valence neutrons may be involved. To describe this situation, a four-neutron halo model in the unitary limit is developed and applied to $^{22}$C, $^{19}$B, and $^{14}$Be, in which a compact nuclear core is surrounded by two weakly bound spin-singlet neutron pairs occupying different spatial shells, characterized by two independent momentum scales, with the four-neutron wave function fully antisymmetrized. The evolution of the halo structure with the ratio of the two scales is mapped from the limit of well-separated scales, where the system reduces to an effective two-neutron halo around a structured core, to the regime of comparable scales, where the four-neutron character is fully developed. At intermediate ratios, a window is identified in which the dimensionless root-mean-square distances become insensitive to the scale hierarchy and the system behaves approximately as a one-scale configuration. The calculated matter radii of $^{22}$C and $^{19}$B are consistent with the most recent experimental values and, within current uncertainties, the matter radius does not discriminate between an effective two-neutron-halo and an explicit four-neutron-halo description of $^{22}$C. Distinguishing the two pictures requires observables sensitive to the shape of the halo distribution, such as ratios of higher radial moments. For $^{14}$Be, the computed charge radius is consistent with the value derived from the measured point-proton radius.