Achieving a first-principles description of the properties of nuclei as they emerge from the underlying fundamental interactions among the constituent protons and neutrons is a central goal of nuclear theory. In the past decades, progress in this area has been mainly driven by nuclear structure calculations, but new capabilities are now emerging that allow us to unravel the role of continuum degrees of freedom in shaping the low-lying spectrum of light nuclei and explore three-nucleon force effects in light-nucleus scattering and reactions. In this talk I will present state of the art ab initio calculations for nucleon and deuterium scattering on light nuclei starting from chiral two- and three-body Hamiltonians. In addition, I will also discuss the progress toward the description of the low-lying spectrum of Helium-6 and Hydrogen-5 within an ab initio framework that encompasses the three-cluster dynamics characterizing their lowest threshold for particle decay.

Argonne Physics Division Seminar Schedule