Light nuclei without a core

TL;DR

This paper introduces the no-core full configuration (NCFC) method for calculating properties of light nuclei using realistic interactions, providing reliable energies and predictions for unmeasured nuclei.

Contribution

The paper presents the NCFC approach, demonstrating its effectiveness with exponential extrapolations for light nuclei and predicting properties of unmeasured isotopes.

Findings

Accurate ground state energies for $^4$He, $^{12}$C, and $^{14}$F.

Predicted binding energy of $^{14}$F as 68.1 ± 2.7 MeV.

$^{12}$C is overbound by 1.7 MeV.

Abstract

We introduce the no-core full configuration (NCFC) approach and present results for $^4$He, $^{12}$C and $^{14}$F with the realistic NN interaction, JISP16. We obtain ground state energies and their uncertainties through exponential extrapolations that we demonstrate are reliable in $^4$He where fully converged results are obtained. We find $^{12}$C is overbound by 1.7 MeV and we predict the yet-to-be-measured binding energy of $^{14}$F to be $68.1 \pm 2.7$ MeV. The extrapolated spectrum of $^{14}$F is in reasonable agreement with known features of the $^{14}$B spectrum.