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The project Nuclear Physics from the Standard Model, coordinated by our researcher Assumpta Parreño, has been awarded 121 million core hours on Marconi100 at CINECA (Italy) within the 22nd PRACE Project Access Call.


Atomic nuclei make up more than 99% of the visible matter in the universe. Understanding the physics of these nuclei is therefore fundamental to understanding the world around us. Particularly important questions are: How does the complex structure of a nucleus arise from the dynamics of quarks and gluons, fundamental objects of the Standard Model which, together with gravity, is our current description of Nature? How do nuclei interact with each other and with other particles of the Standard Model? How can new physics beyond the Standard Model be discovered using nuclear isotopes as targets? The calculations proposed in this project will address parts of these broad questions and further elucidate the nuclear realm. In particular, the project will lead to the ground-state spectrum and matrix elements of s-shell nuclei. The final goal is to extract nuclear and hypernuclear forces relevant for determinations of the nuclear equation of state that governs neutron star structure and merger dynamics, and to constrain the theoretical understanding of dark matter scattering from nuclei in terrestrial detectors, representing a significant step forward in showing how nuclei emerge from the intricacies of Standard Model dynamics.

The team that will conduct the research has strong expertise in nuclear and particle physics, numerical algorithms, large-scale calculations and effective field theories, and is composed by our researchers Assumpta Parreño and Marc Illa, Zohreh Davoudi from the University of Maryland, William Detmold and Phiala Shanahan from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Michael Wagman from Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. They all are members of the Nuclear Physics with Lattice Quantum Chromodynamics Collaboration, NPLQCD, an ongoing international effort dedicated to provide a quantitative bridge between nuclear physics and the underlying theory of fundamental forces using Lattice QCD.

About Assumpta Parreño:

Assumpta Parreño is a nuclear physicist, vice dean of our Institute and a professor of the Faculty of Physics of the University of Barcelona. Prof. Parreño is member of the research group in hadronic, atomic and nuclear physics at the Institute of Cosmos Sciences. The group studies the basic properties of atomic nuclei and the interactions involving hadrons and nuclei. Prof. Parreño's research interests also include the description of weak interaction processes responsible for the decay of hypernuclei, exotic nuclei composed of neutrons, protons and their strange extensions, hyperons.


About 22nd PRACE Project Access Call:

The 22nd PRACE Project Access Call received 61 eligible proposals, of which 43 were awarded, a total of 1.92 billion core hours. These projects are led by principal investigators from 14 different countries, with 13% female leadership. Seven scientific fields are represented among the awarded proposals: 6 proposals are linked to the fields of Biochemistry, Bioinformatics and Life Sciences; 21 to Chemical Sciences and Materials; 3 to Earth System Sciences; 3 to Engineering; 8 to Fundamental Constituents of Matter; 1 to Mathematics and Computer Sciences, and 1 to Universe Sciences.