Unified ab initio approaches to nuclear structure and reactions

TL;DR

This paper reviews recent progress in ab initio nuclear physics, focusing on methods that describe both nuclear structure and reactions from fundamental interactions, with applications to light nuclei, astrophysics, and fusion.

Contribution

It introduces a unified ab initio approach based on the No-Core Shell Model capable of describing bound and scattering states simultaneously, including recent results on resonances and reactions.

Findings

Successful description of resonances in $^6$He halo nucleus

Accurate modeling of five- and six-nucleon scattering

Insights into the role of chiral three-nucleon interactions in $^9$Be

Abstract

The description of nuclei starting from the constituent nucleons and the realistic interactions among them has been a long-standing goal in nuclear physics. In addition to the complex nature of the nuclear forces, with two-, three- and possibly higher many-nucleon components, one faces the quantum-mechanical many-nucleon problem governed by an interplay between bound and continuum states. In recent years, significant progress has been made in ab initio nuclear structure and reaction calculations based on input from QCD-employing Hamiltonians constructed within chiral effective field theory. After a brief overview of the field, we focus on ab initio many-body approaches - built upon the No-Core Shell Model - that are capable of simultaneously describing both bound and scattering nuclear states, and present results for resonances in light nuclei, reactions important for astrophysics and fusion research. In particular, we review recent calculations of resonances in the $^6$He halo nucleus, of five- and six-nucleon scattering, and an investigation of the role of chiral three-nucleon interactions in the structure of $^9$Be. Further, we discuss applications to the $^7$Be$(p,\gamma)^8$B radiative capture. Finally, we highlight our efforts to describe transfer reactions including the $^3$H$(d,n)^4$He fusion.