We perform no-core configuration interaction calculations for nuclei in the p-shell. We show that for typical light nuclei, a truncation on the total number of quanta in the many-body system converges much more rapidly than a full configuration interaction (FCI) truncation, which is a truncation on the single-particle basis space. We present new results for the ground state energies of the Be isotopes with the nonlocal two-body potential JISP16, and discuss emerging phenomena such as clustering and rotational band structures in 9Be. We also show that the anomalously suppressed beta decay of 14C to the ground state of 14N can be reproduced using two- and three-nucleon forces from chiral effective field theory. In particular the structure of the ground state of 14N is sensitive to the three-nucleon force.
We show the first results for the elastic scattering of neutrons off oxygen and calcium isotopes obtained from ab initio optical potentials. The potential is derived using self consistent Green's function theory (SCGF) with the saturating chiral interaction NNLO$_{\textrm{sat}}$. Our calculations are compared to available scattering data and show that it is possible to reproduce low energy scattering observables in medium mass nuclei from first principles.
With a view toward describing reactions of intermediate-mass nuclei from first principles, we present first results for the norm and Hamiltonian overlaps (kernels) for the p-α, p-16O and p-20Ne cluster systems using realistic nucleon-nucleon interactions. This is achieved in the framework of a new ab initio approach that combines the symmetry-adapted no-core shell model (SA-NCSM) with the resonating group method (RGM). In this model, a physically relevant basis based on the SU(3) symmetry is used. The structure of the clusters is provided by the ab initio SA-NCSM, which enables the description…
We derive ab initio optical potentials from self-consistent Green's function (SCGF) theory and compute the elastic scattering of neutrons off oxygen and calcium isotopes. The comparison with scattering data is satisfactory at low scattering energies. The method is benchmarked against no-core shell model with continuum (NCSMC) calculations, showing that virtual excitations of the target are crucial to predict proper fragmentation and absorption at higher energies. This is a significant step toward deriving optical potentials for medium mass nuclei and complex many-body systems in general.
This review presents some of the challenges in constructing models of atomic nuclei starting from theoretical descriptions of the strong interaction between nucleons. The focus is on statistical computing and methods for analyzing the link between bulk properties of atomic nuclei, such as radii and binding energies, and the underlying microscopic description of the nuclear interaction. The importance of careful model calibration and uncertainty quantification of theoretical predictions is highlighted.
We merge two successful ab initio nuclear-structure methods, the no-core shell model (NCSM) and the multi-reference in-medium similarity renormalization group (IM-SRG) to define a new many-body approach for the comprehensive description of ground and excited states of closed and open-shell nuclei. Building on the key advantages of the two methods---the decoupling of excitations at the many-body level in the IM-SRG and the access to arbitrary nuclei, eigenstates, and observables in the NCSM---their combination enables fully converged no-core calculations for an unprecedented range of nuclei and…
Ab initio calculations of reactions with light nuclei
{ \em ab initio}（即，从第一性原理）理论框架能够提供轻核的结构和低能反应性质的统一描述，这对于进一步理解核子之间的基本相互作用，并为核天体物理、聚变能量研究和其它应用提供关键反应速率的精确预测是期望的。本文回顾了在{ \em ab initio}无核壳模型连续介质框架下，从手征二体和三体哈密顿量出发，对核子和氘在轻核上散射的{\em ab initio}计算.这是一个统一的核束缚态和散射态的方法，其中的$A$ -核子系统的平方可积能量本征态耦合到$(A-a)+a$靶加弹波函数的精神，共振群方法，以获得一个有效的描述多体核动力学在短，中距离和长距离。
Ab initio has been used as a label in nuclear theory for over two decades. Its meaning has evolved and broadened over the years. We present our interpretation, briefly review its historical use, and discuss its present-day relation to theoretical uncertainty quantification.
We present the first application of a new approach, proposed in [Journal of Physics G: Nuclear and Particle Physics, 43, 04LT01 (2016)] to derive coupling constants of the Skyrme energy density functional (EDF) from ab initio Hamiltonian. By perturbing the ab initio Hamiltonian with several functional generators defining the Skyrme EDF, we create a set of metadata that is then used to constrain the coupling constants of the functional. We use statistical analysis to obtain such an ab initio-equivalent Skyrme EDF. We find that the resulting functional describes properties of atomic nuclei and i…
Toward $\textit{Ab Initio}$ Quantum Simulations of Atomic Nuclei Using Noisy Qubits
State Key Laboratory of Nuclear Physics and Technology, School of Physics, Peking University（北京大学物理学院核物理与技术国家重点实验室）；Southern Center for Nuclear-Science Theory (SCNT), Institute of Modern Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院近代物理研究所南方核科学理论中心）
In the present work, we have reported shell model results for open shell nuclei Ne, Mg and Si isotopes with $10 \leq N \leq 20$ in $sd$-shell model space. We have performed calculations in $sd$ shell with two $ab~initio$ approaches: in-medium similarity renormalization group (IM-SRG) and coupled-cluster (CC) theory. We have also performed calculations with phenomenological USDB interaction and chiral effective field theory based CEFT interaction. The results for rotational spectra and $B(E2;2_1^+\rightarrow 0_1^+)$ transitions are reported for even-mass isotopes. The IM-SRG and CC results are …
A new convenient method for precise theoretical calculations of quantities of traditional theory of nuclear reactions such as widths of resonances (including sub-threshold), and asymptotic normalization coefficients is proposed. This method may be considered as a step on the road to full theoretical ab initio description of light nuclei spectroscopic data. As an illustration of this method the computational results for all relevant two-body channels for all known and some theoretically predicted states of 7Li nucleus are shown. Well-proven on a large amount of data Daejeon16 potential was used…
Meaningful predictions for electric quadrupole (E2) observables from ab initio nuclear theory are necessary, if the ab initio description of collective correlations is to be confronted with experiment, as well as to provide predictive power for unknown E2 observables. However, converged results for E2 observables are notoriously challenging to obtain in ab initio no-core configuration interaction (NCCI) approaches. Matrix elements of the E2 operator are sensitive to the large-distance tails of the nuclear wave function, which converge slowly in an oscillator basis expansion. Similar convergenc…
We study the efficacy of a new ab initio framework that combines the symmetry-adapted (SA) no-core shell-model approach with the resonating group method (RGM) for unified descriptions of nuclear structure and reactions. We obtain ab initio neutron-nucleus interactions for $^4$He, $^{16}$O, and $^{20}$Ne targets, starting with realistic nucleon-nucleon potentials. We discuss the effect of increasing model space sizes and symmetry-based selections on the SA-RGM norm and direct potential kernels, as well as on phase shifts, which are the input to calculations of cross sections. We demonstrate the…
Ab initio nuclear theory provides not only a microscopic framework for quantitative description of the nuclear many-body system, but also a foundation for deeper understanding of emergent collective correlations. A symplectic Sp(3,R)$\supset$U(3) dynamical symmetry is identified in ab initio predictions, from a no-core configuration interaction approach, and found to provide a qualitative understanding of the spectrum of 7Be. Low-lying states form an Elliott SU(3) spectrum, while an Sp(3,R) excitation gives rise to an excited rotational band with strong quadrupole connections to the ground sta…
Nuclear structure and reaction theory are undergoing a major renaissance with advances in many-body methods, realistic interactions with greatly improved links to Quantum Chromodynamics, the advent of high performance computing, and improved computational algorithms. State-of-the-art two- and three-nucleon interactions obtained from chiral Effective Field Theory provide a theoretical foundation for nuclear theory with controlled approximations. With highly efficient numerical codes, tuned to the current generation of supercomputers, we can perform ab-initio nuclear structure calculations for a…
Based on the spectator expansion of the multiple scattering series we employ a chiral next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) nucleon-nucleon interaction on the same footing in the structure as well as in the reaction calculation to obtain an in leading-order consistent effective potential for nucleon-nucleus elastic scattering, which includes the spin of the struck target nucleon. As an example we present proton scattering off $^{12}$C.
We use properties of doubly-magic nuclei, ab-initio calculations of low-density neutron matter, and of neutron stars to constrain the parameters of the Skyrme energy-density functional. We find all of these properties can be reproduced within a constrained family of Skyrme parameters. The maximum mass of a neutron star is found to be sensitive to the neutron effective mass. A value of [$ m^{*}_{\rm n}/m](ρ_0) = 0.60-0.65 $ is required to obtain a maximum neutron star mass of 2.1 solar masses. Using the constrained Skyrme functional with the aforementioned effective mass, the predicted radius f…
In this work we present $ab~initio$ shell-model calculations for electric quadrupole moments and magnetic dipole moments of $sd$ shell nuclei using valence-space Hamiltonians derived with two $ab~initio$ approaches: the in-medium similarity renormalization group (IM-SRG) and the coupled-cluster effective interaction (CCEI). Results are in a reasonable agreement with the available experimental data as well as with the results from the phenomenological USDB effective interaction. This work will add more information to the available $ab~initio$ results for the spectroscopy of $sd$ shell nuclei.
We propose a new approach to determine the strength of the charge symmetry breaking (CSB) term in the framework of nuclear density functional theory. It is shown that once ab initio calculations are available including accurate description of isospin symmetry breaking terms in medium and heavy nuclei, the mass difference of mirror nuclei as well as the neutron-skin thickness of doubly-closed-shell nuclei can be used to constrain the strength of the CSB interaction with an uncertainty less than $ 6 \, \% $, separately from other isospin symmetry breaking forces. This method opens a new vista of…
Theoretical predictions need quantified uncertainties for a meaningful comparison to experimental results. This is an idea which presently permeates the field of theoretical nuclear physics. In light of the recent progress in estimating theoretical uncertainties in ab initio nuclear physics, we here present and compare methods for evaluating the statistical part of the uncertainties. A special focus is put on the (for the field) novel method of Lagrange multipliers (LM). Uncertainties from the fit of the nuclear interaction to experimental data are propagated to a few observables in light-mass…
We report on the computational characteristics of ab initio nuclear structure calculations in a symmetry-adapted no-core shell model (SA-NCSM) framework. We examine the computational complexity of the current implementation of the SA-NCSM approach, dubbed LSU3shell, by analyzing ab initio results for 6Li and 12C in large harmonic oscillator model spaces and SU(3)-selected subspaces. We demonstrate LSU3shell's strong-scaling properties achieved with highly-parallel methods for computing the many-body matrix elements. Results compare favorably with complete model space calculations and significa…
A systematic and specific pattern due to the effects of the tensor forces is found in the evolution of spin-orbit splittings in neutron drops. This result is obtained from relativistic Brueckner-Hartree-Fock theory using the bare nucleon-nucleon interaction. It forms an important guide for future microscopic derivations of relativistic and nonrelativistic nuclear energy density functionals.
We present No-Core Full Configuration results for the ground state energies of all particle-stable p-shell nuclei, as well as the excitation energies of more than 40 narrow states, excluding isobaric analog states. We used the chiral LENPIC nucleon-nucleon plus three-nucleon interaction at N2LO with semi-local coordinate space regulators, and also the phenomenological Daejeon16 nucleon-nucleon potential. With simple exponential extrapolations of the total energies of each state, binding energies and spectra are found to be in good agreement with experiment. Both interactions produce a trend to…
We introduce a symplectic no-core configuration interaction (SpNCCI) framework for ab initio nuclear structure calculations, in a correlated many-body basis which encodes an approximate Sp(3,R) symmetry of the nucleus. Such a scheme potentially provides a means of restricting the many-body space to include only those highly-excited configurations which dominantly contribute to the nuclear wave function. We examine the symplectic symmetry structure arising in an illustrative ab initio SpNCCI calculation for 6Li. We observe both the dominance of symplectic symmetry in individual wave functions a…
Background: Low-energy transfer reactions in which a proton is stripped from a deuteron projectile and dropped into a target play a crucial role in the formation of nuclei in both primordial and stellar nucleosynthesis, as well as in the study of exotic nuclei using radioactive beam facilities and inverse kinematics. Ab initio approaches have been successfully applied to describe the $^3$H$(d,n)^4$He and $^3$He$(d,p)^4$He fusion processes. Purpose: An ab initio treatment of transfer reactions would also be desirable for heavier targets. In this work, we extend the ab initio description of $(d,…
Three-nucleon (3N) interactions are key for an accurate solution of the nuclear many-body problem. However, fully taking into account 3N forces constitutes a computational challenge and hence approximate treatments are commonly employed. The method of normal ordering has proven to be a powerful tool that allows to systematically include 3N interactions in an efficient way, but traditional normal-ordering frameworks require the representation of 3N interactions in a large single-particle basis, typically necessitating a truncation of 3N matrix elements. While this truncation has only a minor im…
We propose a novel storage scheme for three-nucleon (3N) interaction matrix elements relevant for the normal-ordered two-body approximation used extensively in ab initio calculations of atomic nuclei. This scheme reduces the required memory by approximately two orders of magnitude, which allows the generation of 3N interaction matrix elements with the standard truncation of $E_{\rm 3max}=28$, well beyond the previous limit of 18. We demonstrate that this is sufficient to obtain the ground-state energy of $^{132}$Sn converged to within a few MeV with respect to the $E_{\rm 3max}$ truncation.In …
Isospin-symmetry breaking is responsible for the energy difference of excited states in mirror nuclei. It also influences the coefficient of the isobaric multiplet mass equation. In the present work, we extensively investigate isospin-symmetry breaking in medium mass nuclei within ab initio frameworks. For this, we employ the ab initio valence-space in-medium similarity renormalization group approach, in which charge-symmetry and charge-independence breakings are included in the adopted nuclear force. The mirror energies of sd- and pf- shell nuclei are computed for that matter. The effects of …
Ab initio charge form factors and radii of light isoscalar nuclei: Role of the two-body charge density
Forschungszentrum Jülich（于利希研究中心）；Ruhr-Universität Bochum（波鸿鲁尔大学）；Universität Bonn（波恩大学）；Helmholtz-Institut für Strahlen- und Kernphysik（亥姆霍兹射线与核物理研究所）；Bethe Center for Theoretical Physics（贝特理论物理中心）；Peng Huanwu Collaborative Center for Research and Education, International Institute for Interdisciplinary and Frontiers, Beihang University（北京航空航天大学国际交叉前沿研究院彭桓武教研协同中心）
Structural phenomena in nuclei, from shell structure and clustering to superfluidity and collective rotations and vibrations, reflect emergent degrees of freedom. Ab initio theory describes nuclei directly from a fully microscopic formulation. We can therefore look to ab initio theory as a means of exploring the emergence of effective degrees of freedom in nuclei. For the illustrative case of emergent rotational bands in the Be isotopes, we establish an understanding of the underlying oscillator space and angular momentum (orbital and spin) structure. We consider no-core configuration interact…
