Nuclear Reactions from Lattice QCD

TL;DR

This paper reviews efforts to compute nuclear reactions directly from Quantum Chromodynamics using lattice QCD, aiming to connect fundamental theory with nuclear physics applications.

Contribution

It discusses recent developments and future plans for deriving nuclear reaction properties from lattice QCD, bridging fundamental theory and nuclear many-body physics.

Findings

Lattice QCD provides reliable calculations of low-energy hadronic observables.

Workshop discussions outline a path to connect lattice QCD with nuclear reactions.

Future work aims to perform ab initio nuclear reaction calculations from QCD.

Abstract

One of the overarching goals of nuclear physics is to rigorously compute properties of hadronic systems directly from the fundamental theory of strong interactions, Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD). In particular, the hope is to perform reliable calculations of nuclear reactions which will impact our understanding of environments that occur during big bang nucleosynthesis, the evolution of stars and supernovae, and within nuclear reactors and high energy/density facilities. Such calculations, being truly ab initio, would include all two-nucleon and three- nucleon (and higher) interactions in a consistent manner. Currently, lattice QCD provides the only reliable option for performing calculations of some of the low- energy hadronic observables. With the aim of bridging the gap between lattice QCD and nuclear many-body physics, the Institute for Nuclear Theory held a workshop on Nuclear Reactions from Lattice QCD on March 2013. In this review article, we report on the topics discussed in this workshop and the path planned to move forward in the upcoming years.