Non-Empirical Interactions for the Nuclear Shell Model: An Update

Understand

The nuclear shell model has been perhaps the most important conceptual and computational paradigm for the understanding of the structure of atomic nuclei.

• While the shell model has been predominantly used in a phenomenological context, there have been efforts stretching back over a half century to derive shell model parameters based on a realistic interaction between nucleons.
• More recently, several ab initio many-body methods---in particular many-body perturbation theory, the no-core shell model, the in-medium similarity renormalization group, and coupled cluster theory---have developed the capability to provide effective shell model Hamiltonians.
• We provide an update on the status of these methods and investigate the connections between them and potential strengths and weaknesses, with a particular focus on the in-medium similarity renormalization group approach.