********************************************************************** GAUSTEQ Germany and U.S. Nuclear Theory Exchange Program for QCD Studies of Hadrons and Nuclei *************************** VISITOR REPORT *************************** Please use the following template to prepare your report in plain text format. Short, itemized answers are preferred. Send your report by E-mail to (as an attachment to preserve formating). ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 1) NAME AND HOME INSTITUTION OF TRAVELER (INCL. E-MAIL ADDRESS) James P. Vary Department of Physics and Astronomy Iowa State University Ames, IA 50011 Email: jvary@iastate.edu ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) POSITION OF TRAVELER (FACULTY/STAFF/POSTDOC/STUDENT) Professor of Physics ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) DATES OF TRAVEL July 3 – 12, 2014 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) INSTITUTIONS VISITED (LIST PLACES AND TIME SPENT THERE) Technische Universitaet Darmstadt (July 3 – 7, 2014 and July 8 - 12, 2014) University of Giessen (July 7, 2014) University of Bochum (July 7 – 8, 2014) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 5) SCIENTIFIC CONTACTS AND COLLABORATORS (INDICATE NATURE OF CONTACTS, LIKE "NEW COLLABORATION," "CONTINUING COLLABORATION," "USEFUL DISCUSSION," ETC.) TU Darmstadt: Robert Roth, Kai Hebeler, Sven Binder, Angelo Calci, Joachim Langhammer - all for continuing collaboration on many-body theory and applications of chiral effective field theory interactions Achim Schwenk, useful discussions on many-body theory and two-body current corrections to weak transitions in nuclei University of Giessen: Horst Lenske, Madhumita Dhar – useful discussions exploring potential collaboration University of Bochum: Evgeny Epelbaum, Hermann Krebs and others all for new collaboration on next-generation chiral effective field theory interactions for ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 6) TOPICS DISCUSSED DURING VISIT TU Darmstadt: We continue to work together on applications of chiral effective field theory hamiltonians to nuclei and neutron drops. Our main goals during this visit were to finish a first paper on neutron drops and draw up a research plan for a larger paper on neutron drops. We accomplished both goals during this visit. It should be noted that these projects involve three researchers at Iowa State (myself, Pieter Maris and a graduate student, Hugh Potter). The research plan includes areas of direct bearing on Hugh Potter’s PhD thesis University of Giessen: The goal of this visit was to explore potential collaboration between the Iowa State group and the University of Giessen group on a project that will be the focus of the PhD research of Ms. Madhumita Dhar. I also delivered a seminar. During our discussions, it became evident that a desirable path for Ms. Dhar’s research would involve an additional detailed discussion with Robert Roth concerning effective hyperon-nucleon interactions and their use in many-body calculations. I therefore initiated further discussions with Robert Roth following the visit to the University of Giessen. The upshot of these discussions is that Ms. Dhar’s thesis project has evolved and will now likely involve a close collaboration with the TU Darmstadt group. University of Bochum: The goal of this 1-day visit was to meet with the Bochum group, the group from Cracow and the group from Darmstadt (Robert Roth’s group) that were visiting for the day within the framework of the Low-Energy Nuclear Physics International Collaboration (LENPIC). We worked jointly on plans to develop and apply next generation chiral effective field theory interactions. Follow up efforts were planned including periodic conference calls – the first of which will take place on September 29, 2014. A large-scale multi-institution effort is planned and the Iowa State group’s role will be to spearhead a range of applications to the low-energy properties of light nuclei. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 7) IMPACT ON TRAVELER'S OR HOST'S RESEARCH (INCL. EXPECTED PUBLICATIONS) Besides setting the course for new collaborative activities as outlined above, I was able to move forward to finalize papers that are in draft form. During this period our initial paper that recognizes previous GAUSTEQ support has been published: P. Maris, J.P. Vary, A. Calci, J. Langhammer, S. Binder and R. Roth, “12C properties with evolved chiral three-nucleon interactions,” Phys. Rev. C 90, 014314 (2014); arXiv 1405.1331; URL: http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevC.90.014314 DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevC.90.014314 We also finalized and submitted the second major paper to emerge recognizing GAUSTEQ support: H.D. Potter, S. Fischer, P. Maris, J.P. Vary, S. Binder, A. Calci, J. Langhammer and R. Roth, “Ab initio neutron drops with chiral Hamiltonians,” arXiv:1406.1160 We are currently revising this second paper to take into account constructive suggestions of the referee and we anticipate publication soon in Phys. Letts. B We drafted our plan for a larger follow-on paper focused on neutron drops and we discussed additional projects applying chiral interactions to light nuclei. Efforts are now underway to execute the plans. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 8) RELEVANCE TO JEFFERSON LAB OR GSI-FAIR (LIST RELEVANT PROGRAMS) Fundamental nuclear theory with ties to QCD through chiral effective field theory will likely impact all areas of research at Jefferson Lab and GSI-Fair. Electroweak properties of nuclei are a particular focus area of our work affording multiple contacts with experiments at these forefront facilities. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 9) SUGGESTIONS/RECOMMENDATIONS FOR PROGRAM ADMINISTRATORS (IF ANY) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 10) SUPPORT PROVIDED BY HOSTS (INDICATE TYPE AND EXTENT OF SUPPORT, NOT EXACT AMOUNTS) The University of Giessen provided support for the train travel costs from Darmstadt to Giessen and return. Robert Roth provided transportation by auto from Bochum to Darmstadt. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 11) ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Please acknowledge support from the GAUSTEQ program in any publication benefiting from the results of your visit, by including the following text in your acknowledgments: "This work was supported partially through GAUSTEQ (Germany and U.S. Nuclear Theory Exchange Program for QCD Studies of Hadrons and Nuclei) under contract number DE-SC0006758." ---------------------------------------------------------------------- updated: Nov. 2011 **********************************************************************