Ab Initio Theory of Light-ion Reactions

The exact treatment of nuclei starting from the constituent nucleons and the fundamental interactions among them has been a long-standing goal in nuclear physics. Above all nuclear scattering and reactions, which require the solution of the many-body quantum-mechanical problem in the continuum, represent a theoretical and computational challenge for ab initio approaches. After a brief overview of the field, we present a new ab initio many-body approach capable of describing simultaneously both bound and scattering states in light nuclei. By combining the resonating-group method (RGM) with the ab initio no-core shell model (NCSM), we complement a microscopic cluster technique with the use of realistic interactions and a microscopic and consistent description of the clusters. We show results for neutron and proton scattering on light nuclei, including p-⁷Be and n-⁸He. We also highlight the first results of the d-³He and d-³H fusion calculations obtained within this approach.