Variational Calculations of Nuclei with Low-Momentum Potentials

Variational calculations of the deuteron and the triton illustrate that simple wave function ansätze become more effective after evolving the nucleon-nucleon potential to lower momentum (“Vlow k”). This is consistent with many-body wave functions becoming much less correlated at lower cutoffs, as shown by two-particle wave functions and pair-distribution functions in nuclear matter. These results motivate a program to explore variational many-body calculations of binding energies and other low-energy nuclear properties using low-momentum potentials.