Ab initio theory for heavy nuclei and the physics of neutrinos

Breakthroughs in our treatment of the many-body problem and nuclear forces are rapidly transforming modern nuclear theory into a true first-principles discipline. This allows us to address some of the most exciting questions at the frontiers of nuclear structure and physics beyond the standard model, such as the nature of dark matter and neutrino masses, as well as searches for violations of fundamental symmetries in nature.

In this talk I will briefly outline our many-body approach, the valence-space in-medium similarity renormalization group, and how recent advances now allows us to calculate converged properties of open-shell nuclei to the ²⁰⁸Pb region and beyond. In particular I will focus on connections to key topics in neutrino physics, such as converged ab initio neutrinoless double beta (0νββ) decay nuclear matrix elements (including the recently discovered leading order contact term) for all major players in global searches: ⁷⁶Ge, ¹³⁰Te, and ¹³⁶Xe. In addition I will discuss correlations of 0νββ decay matrix elements with those of double Gamow-Teller and double electron capture will be explored. Finally, ab initio calculations of neutrino scattering will be presented for all relevant target nuclei.