Symmetry-Guided Ab Initio Approach to Light and Medium-Mass Nuclei

We use algorithms of computational group theory to perform ab initio configuration-interaction calculations in a SU(3)-based coupling scheme for p-shell nuclei. Details given for 6Li are reflective of similar results found for 8B, 8Be, 12C and 16O, all of which exhibit a strong preference for large quadrupole deformations and a narrow set of intrinsic spin quantum numbers. Our results suggest that a small subspace of symmetry-adapted configurations can very closely approximate the exact solutions while allowing for exact factorization of the center-of-mass degrees of freedom. This, in turns, promises to allows us to extend the reach of the ab initio framework for structure and reaction studies towards sd-shell nuclei and beyond.