What is wrong with our current nuclear forces?

Abstract

I discuss ab initio predictions for light and intermediate-mass nuclei as well as nuclear matter. Problems and open issues are outlined and an attempt is made to relate them to specific deficiencies of the chiral two- and many-nucleon forces currently in use. In particular, I identify the softness of the NN potential (due to non-locality) as one important factor for the improvement of microscopic predictions. This finding is very much in tune with the recent investigation by Lu et al. (arXiv:1812.10928) where---within a simple, but realistic model---it is shown that proper nuclear matter saturation requires a considerable amout of non-locality in the NN interaction.