J.P. Draayer¹, D. Kekejian¹, G.H. Sargsyan¹, T. Dytrych^1,2, K.D. Launey^1
1Department of Physics and Astronomy, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803 USA
²Nuclear Physics Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences, 25068 Řež, Czech Republic

Abstract. To position in time our recent efforts to advance a forward-leaning many-particle shell-model theory for nuclear structure studies, we start with a review of major developments in nuclear physics over the last (20th) century, focusing especially on the last half as the mathematical framework that underpins our efforts was by-and-large developed by master subatomic theorists from the 50s through the 80s. Additionally, the landscape changed dramatically with the advent in the 90s of high-performance computing (HPC) facilities that could be used to test more complex theories that in prior times were deemed to be beyond reach. The first of these modern theories, the so-called no-core shell model (NCSM), taught us that one can carryout nuclear structure calculations using realistic interactions deduced from nucleon scattering data.
Subsequently we set out to explore whether this could be extended to algebraic models that involve non-compact group structures. A stretch goal of the latter campaign was to move away from a point-particle-picture of nuclei to a theory that is driven by the structure of the constituent nucleons themselves. What follows describes our efforts to date in moving towards this goal, and in the last section of this manuscript we proffered a novel symplectic effective field theory that may begin to pave the way for achieving this objective of breaking down barriers between a low-energy and high-energy view of nuclear physics, opening the door to what might best be called a truly unified `ab initio' theory for subatomic nuclear structure studies.

doi: https://doi.org/10.55318/bgjp.2022.49.1.021

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