A study of spin-polarized atomic hydrogen in the Brueckner-Bethe-Goldstone theory

In this paper the Brueckner-Bethe-Goldstone (BBG) formalism is applied to spin-polarized atomic hydrogen (SPAH) for the first time. To this end, the ground-state energy per atom and the depletion are calculated. The ground-state energy per atom for SPAH is positive definite for all allowed densities. This means that SPAH never forms a many-body bound state. From the depletion results, it is deduced that this system behaves like a weakly interacting Bose gas for relatively low densities. Our calculations are performed for three triplet-state potentials: Morse-type, Silvera, and Born-Oppenheimer. As a bonus, the BBG formalism is also applied to spin-polarized tritium. Unlike SPAH, spin-polarized tritium forms a liquid at zero temperature and pressure, where the binding energy is -0.759 K. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.