Efforts to describe nuclear structure and dynamics from first principles have made phenomenal progress in recent years. Exact methods for light nuclei are now able to include continuum degrees of freedom and treat structure and reactions on the same footing. Moreover, computationally efficient many-body methods like Coupled Cluster, Self-Consistent Greens Function theory, and the In-Medium Similarity Renormalization Group (IMSRG) are nowadays routinely applied for nuclei in the pf shell and beyond. These developments make it possible to confront modern nuclear interactions and electroweak operators that are rooted in Quantum Chromodynamics with a wealth of existing and forthcoming experimental data.

Focusing on the IMSRG as a representative example, I will present recent results for ground- and excited state observables, and discuss their implications for many-body methods and interactions. I will then look ahead at efforts to refine the input interactions and currents, expand the capabilities for computing transitions and response functions, and develop computational tools that are necessary for a controlled description of heavy open-shell nuclei. These developments will allow us to support the experimental push towards exotic nuclei, e.g., by studying the evolution of nuclear properties from the proton to the neutron drip lines, and to contribute to major fundamental symmetry experiments like searches for neutrinoless double beta decay or permanent electric dipole moments.

Argonne Physics Division Seminar Schedule