PrecisionNuclei · Strong interactions for precision nuclear physics

Nuclear physics is a cornerstone in our scientific endeavour tounderstand the universe. Indeed, atomic nuclei bring us closer tostudy both the stellar explosions in the macrocosmos, where theelements are formed, and the fundamental symmetries of themicrocosmos. Having access to a a precise description of theinteractions between protons and neutrons would provide a key tonew knowledge across 20 orders of magnitude; from neutrinos toneutron stars. Despite a century of the finest efforts, asystematic description of strongly interacting matter at lowenergies is still lacking. Successful theoretical approaches,such as mean-field and shell models, rely on uncontrolledapproximations that severely limit their predictive power inregions where the model has not been adjusted.In this project I will develop a novel methodology to useexperimental information from heavy atomic nuclei in theconstruction of nuclear interactions from chiral effective fieldtheory. I expect this approach to enable me and my team to makeprecise ab initio predictions of various nuclear observables in awide mass-range from hydrogen to lead as well as infinite nuclearmatter. I will apply Bayesian regression and methods from machinelearning to quantify the statistical and systematic uncertaintiesof the theoretical predictions. The novelty and challenge in thisproject lies in synthesising (i) the design of nuclearinteractions, (ii) ab initio calculations of nuclei, and (iii)statistical inference in the confrontation between theory andexperimental data. This alignment of methods, harboured withinthe same project, will create a clear scientific advantage andallow me to tackle the following big research question: how canatomic nuclei be described in chiral effective field theories ofquantum chromo dynamics?