We study boron, carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen isotopes with a newly constructed shell-model Hamiltonian developed from a monopole-based universal interaction (VMU). The present Hamiltonian can reproduce well the ground-state energies, energy levels, electric quadrupole properties, and spin properties of these nuclei in full psd model space including (0$-${}3)$\hbar${}$\omega${} excitations. Especially, it correctly describes the drip lines of carbon and oxygen isotopes and the spins of the ground states of 10B and 18N while some former interactions such as WBP and WBT fail. We point out that the inclusion of 2$\hbar${}$\omega${} excitations is important in reproducing some of these properties. In the present (0+2)$\hbar${}$\omega${} calculations small but constant E2 effective charges appear to work quite well. As the inclusion of the 2$\hbar${}$\omega${} model space makes a rather minor change, this seems to be related to the smallness of the 4He core. Similarly, the spin g factors are very close to free values. The applicability of tensor and spin-orbit forces in free space, which are taken in the present Hamiltonian, is examined in shell-model calculations.

Using an effective potential that is based on the Skyrme-Hartree-Fock mean-field model, systematic α-decay properties of even-even heavy and superheavy nuclei have been investigated. Calculations do not raise any adjustable parameter. The obtained α-decay half-lives agree reasonably well with experimental data. The characteristics of the effective potential and the deformation effect on the α decay are discussed.

This white paper reports on the discussions of the 2018 Facility for Rare Isotope Beams Theory Alliance (FRIB-TA) topical program ‘From bound states to the continuum: Connecting bound state calculations with scattering and reaction theory’. One of the biggest and most important frontiers in nuclear theory today is to construct better and stronger bridges between bound state calculations and calculations in the continuum, especially scattering and reaction theory, as well as teasing out the influence of the continuum on states near threshold. This is particularly challenging as many-body structure calculations typically use a bound state basis, while reaction calculations more commonly utilize few-body continuum approaches. The many-body bound state and few-body continuum methods use different language and emphasize different properties. To build better foundations for these bridges, we present an overview of several bound state and continuum methods and, where possible, point to current and possible future connections.

The existence of multineutron systems has always been a debatable question. Indeed, both internucleon correlations and a large continuum coupling occur in these states. We then employ the ab initio no-core Gamow shell model to calculate the resonant energies and widths of the trineutron and tetraneutron systems with realistic interactions. Our results indicate that trineutron and tetraneutron are both unbound and bear broad widths. The calculated energy and width of tetraneutron are also comparable with recent experimental data. Moreover, our calculations suggest that the energy of trineutron is lower than that of tetraneutron, while its resonance width is also narrower. This strongly suggests that trineutron is more likely to be experimentally observed than tetraneutron. We thus suggest experimentalists to search for trineutron at low energy.