Grant: Subatomic Physics Envelope - Individual

My research focuses on understanding and predicting the properties of strongly-interacting matter in the laboratory and the cosmos based on strong interactions between neutrons and protons. The physics of strong interactions spans from new structures in neutron-rich nuclei, universal properties in ultracold atoms and low-density neutron matter, to the extremes reached in supernovae and neutron stars. One of our highlights is the application of a powerful method, called the renormalizaton group, to nuclear interactions. This leads to universal low-momentum interactions that show great promise in few- and many-body calculations and set new frontiers with a unified description of light to heavy nuclei and matter in astrophysics. We will develop the renormalization group for three-nucleon interactions. The proposed research will test low-momentum interactions in nuclear systems on earth and in stars, using powerful many-body methods and developing new ones. My research is strongly connected to and exploits synergies with the experimental ISAC program. One milestone will be the very first calculation with microscopic three-nucleon interactions in medium-mass nuclei, and we will systematically investigate their impact on the evolution to neutron-rich nuclei and the location of the neutron drip line. Our nuclear matter results motivate a program to derive a universal nuclear energy density functional from low-momentum interactions, with first applications to superfluid gaps. We will apply the developments for neutron-rich nuclei and nuclear matter to astrophysics: to the nuclear equation of state for core-collapse supernovae and neutron-star structure/mergers; to light nuclei and neutrino interactions near the neutrinosphere (surface of last neutrino scattering); and to develop a unified approach and improved neutrino physics input for simulations. An important interdisciplinary part is my research on universal properties of Fermi gases with resonant interactions. This can be studied with ultracold atoms, and provides constraints and novel insights to nuclear systems. We will explore the properties of strongly-interacting spin-polarized Fermi gases and novel three-body physics in three-spin-state mixtures.