AUTHOR=Lee Dean 

TITLE=Recent Progress in Nuclear Lattice Simulations

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Physics

VOLUME=Volume 8 - 2020

YEAR=2020

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/physics/articles/10.3389/fphy.2020.00174

DOI=10.3389/fphy.2020.00174

ISSN=2296-424X

ABSTRACT=We review several recent results on nuclear lattice simulations by the Nuclear Lattice Effective Field Theory Collaboration. In the first part we discuss the implementation of nuclear forces on the lattice using chiral effective field theory. The new development we highlight is the use of nonlocal lattice operators to achieve a simpler decomposition into spin channels, in contrast with previous studies that considered only local interactions. In the second part we present evidence that nuclear physics is close to a quantum phase transition. This development is also linked to the study of the differences between local and nonlocal interactions. In the final part we further explore the link between the nuclear forces and nuclear structure. We consider the simplest possible nuclear interaction that can accurately reproduce the ground state properties of light nuclei, medium-mass nuclei, and neutron matter. We discuss what these recent developments say about the emergence of nuclear structure from nuclear forces and the road ahead for nuclear lattice simulations.