Recent advances in the theory of nuclear forces

After a brief historical review, we present recent progress in our understanding of nuclear forces in terms of chiral effective field theory.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures; talk at International Symposium on Correlations Dynamics in Nuclei, University of Tokyo, Japan, 31 January-4 February, 200

Nuclear Physics from Scratch

We report on applications of the ab initio, no-core shell model with the primary goal of achieving an accurate description of nuclear structure and reactions from the fundamental inter-nucleon interactions. We show that realistic two-nucleon interactions are inadequate to describe the low-lying structure of {sup 10}B, and that realistic three-nucleon interactions are essential. We report preliminary attempts to compute astrophysical S-factor

The ab initio no-core shell model

This contribution reviews a number of applications of the ab initio no-core shell model (NCSM) within nuclear physics and beyond. We will highlight a nuclear-structure study of the A = 12 isobar using a chiral NN + 3NF interaction. In the spirit of this workshop we will also mention the new development of the NCSM formalism to describe open channels and to approach the problem of nuclear reactions. Finally, we will illustrate the universality of the many-body problem by presenting the recent adaptation of the NCSM effective-interaction approach to study the many-boson problem in an external trapping potential with short-range interactions.Comment: 4 pages. Article based on the presentation by C. Forssen at the Fifth Workshop on Critical Stability, Erice, Sicily. Published in Few-Body System

Ab-initio calculation of the 6Li{}^6Li binding energy with the Hybrid Multideterminant scheme

We perform an ab-initio calculation for the binding energy of ${}^6Li$ using the CD-Bonn 2000 NN potential renormalized with the Lee-Suzuki method. The many-body approach to the problem is the Hybrid Multideterminant method. The results indicate a binding energy of about $31 MeV$, within a few hundreds KeV uncertainty. The center of mass diagnostics are also discussed.Comment: 18 pages with 3 figures. More calculations added, to be published in EPJ

Parental Autoimmune Diseases Associated With Autism Spectrum Disorders in Offspring

Autism spectrum disorders are often idiopathic. Studies have suggested associations between immune response and these disorders. We explored associations between parental autoimmune disorders and children’s diagnosis of autism by linking Swedish registries

Modern topics in theoretical nuclear physics

Over the past five years there have been profound advances in nuclear physics based on effective field theory and the renormalization group. In this brief, we summarize these advances and discuss how they impact our understanding of nuclear systems and experiments that seek to unravel their unknowns. We discuss future opportunities and focus on modern topics in low-energy nuclear physics, with special attention to the strong connections to many-body atomic and condensed matter physics, as well as to astrophysics. This makes it an exciting era for nuclear physics.Comment: 8 pages, 1 figure, prepared for the Nuclear Physics Town Hall Meeting at TRIUMF, Sept. 9-10, 2005, comments welcome, references adde

LDRD Final Report: Surrogate Nuclear Reactions and the Origin of the Heavy Elements (04-ERD-057)

Research carried out in the framework of the LDRD project ''Surrogate Nuclear Reactions and the Origin of the Heavy Elements'' (04-ERD-057) is summarized. The project was designed to address the challenge of determining cross sections for nuclear reactions involving unstable targets, with a particular emphasis on reactions that play a key role in the production of the elements between Iron and Uranium. This report reviews the motivation for the research, introduces the approach employed to address the problem, and summarizes the resulting scientific insights, technical findings, and related accomplishments

A phase I study of intravenous liposomal daunorubicin (DaunoXome) in paediatric patients with relapsed or resistant solid tumours

Anthracyclines are widely used in paediatric oncology, but their use is limited by the risk of cumulative cardiac toxicity. Encapsulating anthracyclines in liposomes may reduce cardiac toxicity and possibly increase drug availability to tumours. A phase I study in paediatric patients was designed to establish the dose limiting toxicity (DLT) and maximum tolerated dose (MTD) after a single course of liposomal daunorubicin, ‘DaunoXome', as a 1 h infusion on day 1 of a 21 day cycle. Patients were stratified into two groups according to prior treatment: Group A (conventional) and group B (heavily pretreated patients). Dose limiting toxicity was expected to be haematological, and a two-step escalation was planned, with and without G-CSF support. Pharmacokinetic studies were carried out in parallel. In all, 48 patients aged from 1 to 18 years were treated. Dose limiting toxicity was neutropenia for both groups. Maximum tolerated dose was defined as 155 mg m−2 for Group A and 100 mg m−2 for Group B. The second phase with G-CSF was interrupted because of evidence of cumulative cardiac toxicity. Cardiac toxicity was reported in a total of 15 patients in this study. DaunoXome shares the early cardiotoxicity of conventional anthracyclines in paediatric oncology. This study has successfully defined a haematological MTD for DaunoXome, but the significance of this is limited given the concerns of delayed cardiac toxicity. The importance of longer-term follow-up in patients enrolled into phase I studies has been underestimated previously, and may lead to an under-recognition of important adverse events