Infrared extrapolations for atomic nuclei

Understand

Harmonic oscillator model-space truncations introduce systematic errors to the calculation of binding energies and other observables.

• We identify the relevant infrared scaling variable and give values for this nucleus-dependent quantity.
• We consider isotopes of oxygen computed with the coupled-cluster method from chiral nucleon-nucleon interactions at next-to-next-to-leading order and show that the infrared component of the error is sufficiently understood to permit controlled extrapolations.
• By employing oscillator spaces with relatively large frequencies, well above the energy minimum, the ultraviolet corrections can be suppressed while infrared extrapolations over tens of MeVs are accurate for ground-state energies.