First-principles nuclear theory for new physics searches

Answers to some of the fundamental questions in nature, such as the mass of the neutrino, the nature of dark matter, or why there’s an abundance of matter over antimatter in the universe, might well reside in the physics of the atomic nucleus. As the role of atomic nuclei in unraveling such mysteries continues to deepen, first-principles quantum simulations, beginning from only underlying nuclear and electroweak forces, are currently undergoing nothing short of a revolution.

In this talk I will outline this modern, ab initio, approach to nuclear theory, spotlighting several recent milestone advances in structure/astrophysics, which now allow global, open-shell calculations as far as the ²⁰⁸Pb region. I will then focus on how parallel developments are driving first ab initio predictions of neutrinoless double-beta decay, WIMP-nucleus scattering, symmetry-violating moments, and superallowed beta decay, with quantifiable uncertainties, for essentially all nuclei relevant in searches for new physics.