We introduce a unified approach to nuclear bound and continuum states based on the coupling of the no-core shell model (NCSM), a bound-state technique, with the no-core shell model/resonating group method (NCSM/RGM), a nuclear scattering technique. This new ab initio method, no-core shell model with continuum (NCSMC), leads to convergence properties superior to either NCSM or NCSM/RGM while providing a balanced approach to different classes of states. In the NCSMC, the ansatz for the many-nucleon wave function includes: i) a square-integrable A-nucleon component expanded in a complete harmonic oscillator basis; ii) a binary-cluster component with asymptotic boundary conditions that can properly describe weakly-bound states, resonances and scattering; and, in principle, iii) a three-cluster component suitable for the description of, e.g., Borromean halo nuclei and reactions with final three-body states. The Schroedinger equation is transformed into a system of coupled-channel integral-differential equations that we solve using a modified microscopic R-matrix formalism within a Lagrange mesh basis. We demonstrate the usefulness of the approach by investigating the unbound 7He nucleus.
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