Ab Initio Calculations of Atomic Nuclei and Their Interactions

Atomic nuclei are the heart of matter, the fuel of stars, and a unique doorway to explore some of the most fundamental laws of the universe. An overarching goal of nuclear physics is to arrive at a comprehensive understanding of atomic nuclei and their interactions, and to use this understanding to accurately predict nuclear properties that are difficult to measure, or simply inaccessible to experiment. Achieving this goal requires validated models of the interactions of protons and neutrons grounded in the fundamental theory of quantum chromodynamics, powerful methods for the solution of the nuclear many-body problem, and cutting-edge high-performance computing resources. In this colloquium, I will discuss progress and remaining challenges in the ab initio simulation of exotic nuclei and low-energy nuclear reactions, as well as initial steps towards leveraging emerging quantum computing platforms to simulate nuclear dynamical processes.

Pubblicazioni di supporto

1) “Nuclear Resonances, Scattering and Reactions from First Principles: Progress and Prospects”, S. Quaglioni and P. Navrátil, Nuclear Physics News 30, 22 (2020).

2) “Unified ab initio approaches to nuclear structure and reactions”, P. Navrátil, S. Quaglioni, G. Hupin, C. Romero Redondo, and A. Calci, Invited Comment, Special Physica Scripta Edition - Nobel Prize '75,         Physica Scripta 91 053002 (2016).

3) “Optimal Control for the Quantum Simulation of Nuclear Dynamics”, E.T. Holland, K.A. Wendt, K. Kravvaris, X. Wu, W.E. Ormand, J.L. DuBois, S. Quaglioni, and F. Pederiva, Physical Review A 101, 062307       (2020).