Breaking and restoration of rotational symmetry in the low-energy spectrum of light alpha-conjugate nuclei on the lattice I: $^{8}\mathrm{Be}$ and $^{12}\mathrm{C}$

The breaking of rotational symmetry on the lattice for bound eigenstates of the two lightest alpha conjugate nuclei is explored. Moreover, a macroscopic alpha-cluster model is used for investigating the general problems associated with the representation of a physical many-body problem on a cubic lattice. In view of the descent from the 3D rotation group to the cubic group symmetry, the role of the squared total angular momentum operator in the classification of the lattice eigenstates in terms of SO(3) irreps is discussed. In particular, the behaviour of the average values of the latter operator, the Hamiltonian and the inter-particle distance as a function of lattice spacing and size is studied by considering the $0^+$, $2^+$, $4^+$ and $6^+$ (artificial) bound states of $^{8}\mathrm{Be}$ and the lowest $0^+$, $2^+$ and $3^-$ multiplets of $^{12}\mathrm{C}$.