Ground-state properties of spin-aligned deuterium

Abstract

Ground-state properties of nuclear-spin-aligned deuterium are studied within the method of correlated basis functions (CBF), using Fermi-hypernetted-chain (FHNC) techniques to evaluate the requisite matrix elements of the Hamiltonian and identity attendant to a Jastrow choice of correlation operator. Results are presented for the ground-state energies of three hypothetical species of this system, calculated to low order in CBF perturbation theory, taking account of two- and three-body CBF effective interactions. Also included are data on the Jastrow momentum distribution and radial distribution function, computed using the FHNC scheme. These findings are supplemented by benchmark variational Monte Carlo results on the energy and radial distribution function. The three deuterium species provide examples of strongly interacting Fermi fluids, intermediate in coupling strength between nuclear matter and liquid $^{3}\mathrm{He}$.