Effective Field Theory and the Gamow Shell Model: The ⁶He Halo Nucleus

We combine halo/cluster effective field theory (H/CEFT) and the Gamow shell model (GSM) to describe the 0⁺ ground state of ⁶He as a three-body halo system. We use two-body interactions for the neutron-alpha particle and two-neutron pairs obtained from H/CEFT at leading order, with parameters determined from scattering in the p_3/2 and s₀ channels, respectively. The three-body dynamics of the system is solved using the GSM formalism, where the continuum states are incorporated in the shell model valence space. We find that in the absence of three-body forces the system collapses, since the binding energy of the ground state diverges as cutoffs are increased. We show that addition at leading order of a three-body force with a single parameter is sufficient for proper renormalization and to fix the binding energy to its experimental value.