Ab initio valence space theory for exotic nuclei

Recent advances in ab initio nuclear structure theory have led to groundbreaking predictions in the exotic medium-mass region, from the location of the neutron dripline to the emergence of new magic numbers far from stability. Playing a key role in this progress has been the development of sophisticated many-body techniques and chiral effective field theory, which provides a systematic basis for consistent many-nucleon forces and electroweak currents. Within the context of valence-space Hamiltonians derived from the nonperturbative in-medium similarity renormalization group (IM-SRG) approach, I will discuss the importance of 3N forces in understanding and making new discoveries in the exotic sd-shell region. Beginning in oxygen, we find that the effects of 3N forces are decisive in explaining why 24O is the last bound oxygen isotope, validating first predictions of this phenomenon from several years ago. Furthermore, 3N forces play a key role in reproducing spectroscopy, including signatures of doubly magic 22,24O, and physics beyond the dripline. Similar improvements are obtained in new spectroscopic predictions for exotic fluorine and neon isotopes, where agreement with recent experimental data is competitive with state-of-the-art phenomenology. Finally, I will discuss promising extensions of the IM-SRG to effective valence-space operators, crucial for our future understanding of electroweak processes, such as neutrinoless double-beta decay.