Light Nuclei from Lattice QCD: Spectrum, Structure and Reactions

Abstract

Lattice Quantum Chromodynamics (LQCD) studies of light nuclei have entered an era when first results on structure and reaction properties of light nuclei have emerged in recent years, complementing existing results on their lowest-lying spectra. Although in these preliminary studies the quark masses are still set to larger than the physical values, a few results at the physical point can still be deduced from simple extrapolations in the quark masses. The progress paves the road towards obtaining several important quantities in nuclear physics, such as nuclear forces and nuclear matrix elements relevant for pp fusion, single and double-beta decay processes, neutrino-nucleus scattering, searches for CP violation, nuclear response in direct dark-matter detection experiments, as well as gluonic structure of nuclei for an Electron-Ion Collider (EIC) program. Some of the recent developments, the results obtained, and the outlook of the field will be briefly reviewed in this talk, with a focus on results obtained by the Nuclear Physics From LQCD (NPLQCD) collaboration.