Nuclear Physics Seminar with Mack Atkinson on Ab Initio Nuclear Reactions

Most of what is known in nuclear physics today has been learned through nuclear reactions.  By studying particular nuclear reactions, one can study phenomena ranging from astrophysical processes to beyond-standard-model physics. The mechanism underlying these various nuclear processes is the fundamental nuclear force governing the interaction between the constituent nucleons. Ab initio calculations of these nuclear reactions provide a link between reaction observables and the nuclear force. The no-core shell model with continuum (NCSMC) is an ab initio method which treats bound and continuum states in a consistent framework, making it an ideal method to analyze nuclear reactions. I will present two reaction calculations using the NCSMC. The first plays a vital role in the reaction network of our sun, the fusion of 3-He and 4-He (states in the continuum) into 7-Be (a bound state). The second is the beta decay from the halo nucleus 11-Be (bound state) into a proton resonance in 11-B (continuum state). This reaction calculation addresses whether a dark decay mode or a proton resonance is responsible for the observed enhancement of this beta-decay branching ratio