Distribution of spectral widths and preponderance of spin-0 ground states in nuclei

Phys Rev Lett. 2004 Sep 24;93(13):132503. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.93.132503. Epub 2004 Sep 23.

Abstract

We use a single j-shell model with random two-body interactions to derive closed expressions for the distribution of and the correlations between spectral widths of different spins. This task is facilitated by introducing two-body operators whose squared spectral widths sum up to the squared spectral width of the random Hamiltonian. The spin-0 width is characterized by a relatively large average value and small fluctuations, while the width of maximum spin has the largest average and the largest fluctuations. The approximate proportionality between widths and spectral radii explains the preponderance of spin-0 ground states.