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Abstract:
Today, physicists build massive detectors to capture the faintest recoils of nuclei colliding with neutrinos and dark matter (DM). These experiments aim to enable high-precision tests of the Standard Model and to search for physics beyond the Standard Model (BSM). To meaningfully interpret such searches, accurate theoretical predictions of neutrino-nucleus and DM-nucleus cross sections are needed. However, these cross sections carry significant uncertainties, primarily because the nucleus is a complex many-body system composed of protons and neutrons held together by the strong force in a nonperturbative regime.
Recent advancements in nuclear theory have made substantial progress in calculating nuclear properties and their responses to external electroweak probes. In particular, the use of chiral effective field theory in combination with modern computational tools, often referred to as the ab initio approach, provides the greatest promise for quantifying and reducing nuclear uncertainties. In this talk, I will first present an overview of nuclear response calculations for neutrino-nucleus and DM-nucleus elastic and inelastic scattering. I will then focus on recent progress in ab initio nuclear calculations that are advancing this frontier and enabling new insights into fundamental physics.
Biography:
Baishan Hu is an Assistant Professor and Boya Young Scholar at Peking University. In 2025, he was awarded the Early Career Scientist Prize in Nuclear Physics by the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP). He received his Ph.D. from Peking University in 2017, after which he held postdoctoral positions at Peking University, TRIUMF (Canada), and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (USA). In 2024, he became an independent Research Assistant Professor at Texas A&M University at College Station. In May 2026, he returned to Peking University to take an Assistant Professorship in the School of Physics by the Excellent Young Scientists Fund Pro-gram (Overseas). Baishan Hu’s research focuses on ab initio nuclear theory and applications to nuclear physics and particle physics. His work combines chiral nuclear forces, state-of-the-art quantum many-body methods, high-performance computing, and close connections to particle physics. To date, he has published more than 50 research papers in journals including Nature Physics, Nature Reviews Physics, and Physical Review Letters.
Host: Prof. Yifei Niu
Alternative online link: https://meeting.tencent.com/dm/FbrIxzwYlTpw
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