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The study of nuclei far from the valley of stability is an emerging frontier field in nuclear physics. The study of exotic nuclei provides new and exciting opportunities for probing the details of the nuclear force and understanding exactly how nuclei are put together and how they react. Furthermore, the properties of exotic nuclei are key to understanding the production of the elements. In the past few years, there has been a technological revolution with the utilization of radioactive nuclear beams for experiments. Presently, several proposals are under consideration worldwide to invest in next generation facilities [in particular, the Rare Isotope Accelerator in the U.S.] that will be devoted entirely to the study of exotic, short-lived nuclei away from stability. Theory will play a vital role by helping to provide the intellectual foundation to guide the experimental program and in the interpretation new data. Nuclei at the extremes of the nuclear chart magnify important features of the nuclear many-body problem and principal uncertainties of the theoretical description.

Nuclear structure theory is a twin of theories for nuclear reactions and nuclear astrophysics. On the one hand, it provides input to these theories, but on the other hand, it takes abundantly from the results. In particular, studies of structure through nuclear reactions on exotic systems will certainly be the main source of information about them. Numerous links between the three sub-domains make them into a unity, and specific specializations are required only by the fantastic richness of the domain.

This goal of this program is to examine the underlying tenets for theories of the nuclear many-body problem, for both structure and reactions, in order to place them on a more fundamental and predictive foundation for nuclei spanning the entire chart of the nuclides. The primary foci for the program are: