A weak entanglement approximation for nuclear structure: A progress report

We report on a recently proposed approach, inspired by quantum information theory, for calculating low-energy nuclear structure in the framework of the configuration-interaction shell-model. Empirical evidence has demonstrated that the many-proton and many-neutron partitions of nuclear configuration-interaction wave functions are weakly entangled, especially away from N = Z . This has been developed into a practical methodology, the Proton And Neutron Approximate Shell-model (PANASh). We review the basic ideas and present recent results. We also discuss some technical developments in calculations.