CAREER: Large-Scale Theoretical Capabilities for Exploring the Limits of Nuclear Stability

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This project will develop new theoretical capabilities to understand and predict the properties of exotic nuclei living at the edges of nuclear stability and playing an important role in violent astrophysical events such as supernovae. Exotic nuclei, characterized by large imbalances in their proton-to-neutron ratios, are short-lived and magnify less known aspects of nuclear forces by exhibiting new emergent phenomena. Currently, a comprehensive theory of the atomic nucleus connecting quantum chromodynamics to their properties is still missing. In the coming decade, the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) will produce for the first time thousands of new isotopes in the unexplored neutron-rich part of the nuclear chart and provide a trove of new data, which will require enormous theoretical support. This project will address the current disconnect between theory and experiment and advance our understanding of atomic nuclei through key theoretical advances. The broader impacts of this project concern the training of graduate and undergraduate students using integrated education and research activities. Outreach by the PI to local high school students through a summer camp organized at Florida State University is also integral to the project. Specifically, the density matrix renormalization group method for open quantum systems will be extended to systematically test nuclear forces in light exotic nuclei and improve predictions in larger systems; a new ab initio method exploiting the in-medium similarity renormalization group method will be devised to extend the predictive power of ab initio methods in exotic medium-mass nuclei explored by the FRIB; and the effective field theory framework will be used to study many- body resonances and emergent phenomena in exotic nuclei from the nuclear shell model picture. If successful, this research will provide new and valuable insight into the physics of exotic nuclei, and help guide experiments at the FRIB and related facilities.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.