Shortcuts to nuclear structure: lessons in Hartree-Fock, RPA, and the no-core shell model

We present a novel scheme for nuclear structure calculations based on realistic nucleon-nucleon potentials. The essential ingredient is the explicit treatment of the dominant interaction-induced correlations by means of the Unitary Correlation Operator Method (UCOM). Short-range central and tensor correlations are imprinted into simple, uncorrelated many-body states through a state-independent unitary transformation. Applying the unitary transformation to the realistic Hamilt...

We report on the current status of recent efforts to develop the Density Matrix Renormalization Group method for use in large-scale nuclear shell-model calculations.

The present contribution does not aim at replacing the huge and often excellent literature on DFT for atomic nuclei, but tries to provide an updated introduction to this topic. The goal would be, ideally, to help a fresh M.Sc. or Ph.D. student (or a researcher from other fields) to become acquainted with some basic concepts, and then move to the specialized textbooks or papers with some ability for orienteering. We first introduce the basics of DFT, and show the difference wi...

The hole-state random phase approximation (hRPA) and the particle-state random phase approximation (pRPA) for systems like odd $A$ nuclei are discussed. These hRPA and pRPA are formulated based on the Hartree-Fock ground state. An extension of hRPA and pRPA based on a correlated ground state is given using time-dependent density-matrix theory. Applications to the single-particle states around $^{16}$O are presented. It is shown that inclusion of ground-state correlation affec...

Nuclear structure and reaction theory is undergoing a major renaissance with advances in many-body methods, strong interactions with greatly improved links to Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD), the advent of high performance computing, and improved computational algorithms. Predictive power, with well-quantified uncertainty, is emerging from non-perturbative approaches along with the potential for guiding experiments to new discoveries. We present an overview of some of our recent...

The past two decades have witnessed tremendous progress in the microscopic description of atomic nuclei. The Topical Review `The Future of Nuclear Structure' aims at summarizing the current state-of-the-art microscopic calculations in Nuclear Theory and to give a useful reference for young researches who wish to learn more about this exciting discipline.

The present paper is comprised of two parts. First, we give a brief survey of the theoretical framework for microscopic nuclear structure calculations starting from a free nucleon-nucleon potential. Then, we present some selected results of a comprehensive study of nuclei near doubly closed shells. In all these shell-model calculations we have made use of realistic effective interactions derived from the Bonn-A nucleon-nucleon potential by means of a G-matrix folded-diagram m...

We propose a practical method to solve the random-phase approximation (RPA) in the self-consistent Hartree-Fock (HF) and density-functional theory. The method is based on numerical evaluation of the residual interactions utilizing finite amplitude of single-particle wave functions. The method only requires calculations of the single-particle Hamiltonian constructed with independent bra and ket states. Using the present method, the RPA calculation becomes possible with a littl...

In this review, we present a symmetry-guided strategy that utilizes exact as well as partial symmetries for enabling a deeper understanding of and advancing ab initio studies for determining the microscopic structure of atomic nuclei. These symmetries expose physically relevant degrees of freedom that, for large-scale calculations with QCD-inspired interactions, allow the model space size to be reduced through a very structured selection of the basis states to physically rele...

Nuclear many-body calculations are computationally demanding. An estimate of their accuracy is often hampered by the limited amount of computational resources even on present-day supercomputers. We provide an extrapolation method based on perturbation theory, so that the binding energy of a large basis-space calculation can be estimated without diagonalizing the Hamiltonian in this space. The extrapolation method is tested for 3H and 6Li nuclei. It will extend our computation...