What is ab initio?

Understand

Microscopic nuclear theory is based on the tenet that atomic nuclei can be accurately described as collections of point-like nucleons interacting via two- and many-body forces obeying nonrelativistic quantum mechanics -- and the concept of the ab initio approach is to calculate nuclei accordingly.

• The forces are fixed in free-space scattering and must be accurate.
• We will critically review the history of this approach from the early beginnings until today.
• An analysis of current ab initio calculations reveals that some mistakes of history are being repeated today.