Ab initio nuclear thermodynamics

We propose a new Monte Carlo method called the pinhole trace algorithm for {it ab initio} calculations of the thermodynamics of nuclear systems. For typical simulations of interest, the computational speedup relative to conventional grand-canonical ensemble calculations can be as large as a factor of one thousand. Using a leading-order effective interaction that reproduces the properties of many atomic nuclei and neutron matter to a few percent accuracy, we determine the location of the critical point and the liquid-vapor coexistence line for symmetric nuclear matter with equal numbers of protons and neutrons. We also present the first {it ab initio} study of the density and temperature dependence of nuclear clustering.