Over the past five years there have been profound advances in nuclear physics based on effective field theory and the renormalization group. In this review, we summarize these advances and discuss how they impact our understanding of nuclear systems and experiments that seek to unravel their unknowns. We discuss future opportunities and focus on modern topics in low-energy nuclear physics, with special attention on the strong connections to many-body atomic and condensed-matter physics, as well as to astrophysics. This makes it an exciting era for nuclear physics. PACS Nos.: 21.60.–n, 21.30.Fe
Over the past five years there have been profound advances in nuclear physics based on effective field theory and the renormalization group. In this review, we summarize these advances and discuss how they impact our understanding of nuclear systems and experiments that seek to unravel their unknowns. We discuss future opportunities and focus on modern topics in low-energy nuclear physics, with special attention on the strong connections to many-body atomic and condensed-matter physics, as well as to astrophysics. This makes it an exciting era for nuclear physics. PACS Nos.: 21.60.–n, 21.30.Fe
Nuclear physics, whose underling theory is described by quantum gauge field coupled with matter, is fundamentally important and yet is formidably challenge for simulation with classical computers. Quantum computing provides a perhaps transformative approach for studying and understanding nuclear physics. With rapid scaling-up of quantum processors as well as advances on quantum algorithms, the digital quantum simulation approach for simulating quantum gauge fields and nuclear physics has gained lots of attention. In this review, we aim to summarize recent efforts on solving nuclear physics with quantum computers. We first discuss a formulation of nuclear physics in the language of quantum computing. In particular, we review how quantum gauge fields (both Abelian and non-Abelian) and their coupling to matter field can be mapped and studied on a quantum computer. We then introduce related quantum algorithms for solving static properties and real-time evolution for quantum systems, and show their applications for a broad range of problems in nuclear physics, including simulation of lattice gauge field, solving nucleon and nuclear structures, quantum advantage for simulating scattering in quantum field theory, non-equilibrium dynamics, and so on. Finally, a short outlook on future work is given.
This special issue of Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and General is a collection of articles dealing with the application of renormalization group methods to a wide range of problems in physics. Most articles are based on contributions presented at the 6th International Conference, Renormalization Group 2005 (RG 2005), held at the University of Helsinki from 30 August to 3--September 2005. This was the sixth of a series of conferences on this topic, the first three of which took place in 1986, 1991 and 1996 at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, Russia. The fourth (RG99) was held in 1999 in Taxco, Mexico, and the fifth (RG02) in 2002 in Tatranska Strba, Slovakia. During the second half of the 20th century a number of important and very successful new paradigms such as scale-dependent (`running') coupling constants, scaling, and universality became firmly established in physics. To a large extent, these advances were due to the development of renormalization group ideas and their successful implementation as powerful calculational schemes to tackle problems with many length scales. While the concept of the renormalization group had originally been introduced in elementary particle physics, its modern form eventually emerged from the study of problems in condensed matter physics, such as critical phenomena and the Kondo effect. This in turn has significantly reshaped our understanding of field theories in high energy physics, and produced powerful computational tools for dealing with difficult many-length-scale problems in distinct fields of physics, ranging from elementary particle and condensed matter physics to hydrodynamic turbulence and growth phenomena in nonequilibrium physics. The history of the renormalization group, characterized by frequent exchanges of ideas between elementary particle and condensed matter physics, bears testimony to the enormous benefits to which such exchanges can lead. The main aim of the series of renormalization group conferences has been to bring together scientists with backgrounds and expertise in the application of the renormalization group to problems in broadly different areas of physics, offering regular events for continuing such fruiful exchanges of ideas. We hope that the present collection of contributions to quantum field theory, mathematical and methodological aspects of the renormalization group, statistical mechanics, condensed matter physics, and stochastic dynamics conveys this spirit. We feel it amply demonstrates the breadth of activity of research based on the renormalization group and its potential for future work. On behalf of the organizers of the conference, we would like to thank the sixty participants of the conference and the members of the Advisory Board for their contributions. Financial and organizational support of the University of Helsinki, the Academy of Finland, the Finnish Society of Sciences and Letters and the Naval Academy is gratefully acknowledged. We are very grateful to all authors who contributed to this special issue. Finally, we owe special thanks to all who assisted in the preparation of it, in particular to the staff of Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and General .
Quantum many-body theory as a discipline in its own right dates largely from the 1950's. It has developed since then to its current position as one of the cornerstones of modern theoretical physics. The field remains vibrant and active, vigorous and exciting. Indeed, its successes and importance were vividly illustrated prior to the conference by the sharing of the 1998 Nobel Prizes in both Physics and Chemistry by three many-body theorists. Two of those Nobel laureates, Walter Kohn and Bob Laughlin, delivered invited lectures at this meeting, the tenth in the series of International Conferences on Recent Progress in Many-Body Theories. This series is universally recognized as being the premier series of meetings on this subject, and its proceedings have always summarized the current state of the art through the lectures of its leading practitioners. The present volume is no exception. A major aim of this conference series has been to foster the exchange of ideas between physicists working in all the diverse fields of application of quantum many-body theory. These include nuclear and subnuclear physics, quantum fluids, strongly correlated electronic systems, and low-dimensional condensed-matter systems and materials. All of these fields and others are represented in the present volume. Other topical themes covered include density functional theory and its applications to nuclear and electronic systems, quantum dots and chaos, and trapped Bose?Einstein condensates. Through this breadth of applications the reader will get a clear illustration of the power of the tools of modern microscopic quantum many-body theory, and their usefulness both in achieving a commonality of approach and understanding, and in transferring powerful ideas from one field to another.
Quantum many-body theory as a discipline in its own right dates largely from the 1950's. It has developed since then to its current position as one of the cornerstones of modern theoretical physics. The field remains vibrant and active, vigorous and exciting. Indeed, its successes and importance were vividly illustrated prior to the conference by the sharing of the 1998 Nobel Prizes in both Physics and Chemistry by three many-body theorists. Two of those Nobel laureates, Walter Kohn and Bob Laughlin, delivered invited lectures at this meeting, the tenth in the series of International Conferences on Recent Progress in Many-Body Theories. This series is universally recognized as being the premier series of meetings on this subject, and its proceedings have always summarized the current state of the art through the lectures of its leading practitioners. The present volume is no exception. A major aim of this conference series has been to foster the exchange of ideas between physicists working in all the diverse fields of application of quantum many-body theory. These include nuclear and subnuclear physics, quantum fluids, strongly correlated electronic systems, and low-dimensional condensed-matter systems and materials. All of these fields and others are represented in the present volume. Other topical themes covered include density functional theory and its applications to nuclear and electronic systems, quantum dots and chaos, and trapped Bose?Einstein condensates. Through this breadth of applications the reader will get a clear illustration of the power of the tools of modern microscopic quantum many-body theory, and their usefulness both in achieving a commonality of approach and understanding, and in transferring powerful ideas from one field to another.
Over the past few decades, in concert with ground-breaking experimental advances, condensed matter theory has drawn increasingly from the language of low-energy quantum field theory. This primer is aimed at elevating graduate students of condensed matter theory to a level where they can engage in independent research. It emphasizes the development of modern methods of classical and quantum field theory with applications oriented around condensed matter physics. Topics covered include second quantization, path and functional field integration, mean-field theory and collective phenomena, the renormalization group, and topology. Conceptual aspects and formal methodology are emphasized, but the discussion is rooted firmly in practical experimental application. As well as routine exercises, the text includes extended and challenging problems, with fully worked solutions, designed to provide a bridge between formal manipulations and research-oriented thinking. This book will complement graduate level courses on theoretical quantum condensed matter physics.
Lattice field theory methods, usually associated with non-perturbative studies of quantum chromodynamics, are becoming increasingly common in the calculation of ground-state and thermal properties of strongly interacting non-relativistic few- and many-body systems, blurring the interfaces between condensed matter, atomic and low-energy nuclear physics. While some of these techniques have been in use in the area of condensed matter physics for a long time, others, such as hybrid Monte Carlo and improved effective actions, have only recently found their way across areas. With this topical review, we aim to provide a modest overview and a status update on a few notable recent developments. For the sake of brevity we focus on zero-temperature, non-relativistic problems. After a short introduction, we lay out some general considerations and proceed to discuss sampling algorithms, observables, and systematic effects. We show selected results on ground- and excited-state properties of fermions in the limit of unitarity. The appendix contains details on group theory on the lattice.