We investigate the generic pairing properties of shell-model many-body Hamiltonians drawn from ensembles of random two-body matrix elements. Many features of pairing that are commonly attributed to the interaction are in fact seen in a large part of the ensemble space. Not only do the spectra show evidence of pairing with favored $J=0\mathrm{}$ ground states and an energy gap, but the relationship between ground-state wave functions of neighboring nuclei shows signatures of pairing as well. Matrix elements of pair creation-annihilation operators between ground states tend to be strongly enhanced. Furthermore, the same or similar pair operators connect several ground states along an isotopic chain. This algebraic structure is reminiscent of the generalized seniority model. Thus pairing may be encoded to a certain extent in the Fock space connectivity of the interacting shell model even without specific features of the interaction required.

• Received 10 August 1999

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.61.014311