This article provides an insight into several open problems in the quest for novel modes of excitation in nuclei with isospin asymmetry, deformation and finite temperature characteristic in stellar environment. Major unsolved problems include the nature of pygmy dipole resonances, the quest for various multipole and spin-isospin excitations both in neutron-rich and proton drip-line nuclei mainly driven by loosely bound nucleons, excitations in unstable deformed nuclei and evolution of their properties with the shape phase transition. Exotic modes of excitation in nuclei at finite temperatures characteristic for supernova evolution present open problems with possible impact in modeling astrophysically relevant weak interaction rates. All these issues challenge self-consistent many body theory frameworks at the frontiers of on-going research, including nuclear energy density functionals, both phenomenological and constrained by the strong interaction physics of QCD, models based on low-momentum two-nucleon interaction V_{low-k} and correlated realistic nucleon-nucleon interaction V_{UCOM}, supplemented by three-body force, as well as two-nucleon and three-nucleon interactions derived from the chiral effective field theory. Joined theoretical and experimental efforts, including research with radioactive isotope beams, are needed to provide insight into dynamical properties of nuclei away from the valley of stability, involving the interplay of isospin asymmetry, deformation and finite temperature.
Spin-degrees of freedom play a significant role in exotic nuclei. Scattering with polarized protons has potential as a powerful tool to explore the spin effects in nuclei. This lecture note discusses the background, current status, and future prospects of experimental studies with spin polarized targets and radioactive ion beams.
We briefly review the study of the exotic atoms and exotic nuclei, and report recent research activities of eta-mesic nucleus and kaonic atoms in this article.
The study of exotic nuclei---nuclei with the ratio of neutron number $N$ to proton number $Z$ deviating much from that of those found in nature---is at the forefront of nuclear physics research because it can not only reveal novel nuclear properties and thus enrich our knowledge of atomic nuclei, but also help us to understand the origin of chemical elements in the nucleosynthesis. With the development of radioactive ion beam facilities around the world, more and more unstable nuclei become experimentally accessible. Many exotic nuclear phenomena have been observed or predicted in nuclei far f…
A generalized formula is provided, to calculate the M$_n$/M$_p$ ratio of the multipole transition matrix elements, in the framework of the so-called phenomenological analysis. It takes into account the possible difference between the neutron and proton radii and diffuseness, which can occur, especially in exotic nuclei. The validity domain of the original Bernstein formula is discussed, in the case of the proton scattering probe at few tens of MeV. The largest discrepancies are obtained for very neutron-rich nuclei (N/Z$\gtrsim$1.6) or when the electromagnetic deformation parameter is larger t…
The atomic nucleus is a quantum many-body system whose constituent nucleons (protons and neutrons) are subject to complex nucleon-nucleon interactions that include spin- and isospin-dependent components. For stable nuclei, already several decades ago, emerging seemingly regular patterns in some observables could be described successfully within a shell-model picture that results in particularly stable nuclei at certain magic fillings of the shells with protons and/or neutrons: N,Z = 8, 20, 28, 50, 82, 126. However, in short-lived, so-called exotic nuclei or rare isotopes, characterized by a la…
We present a semiclassical and mostly analytical model of elastic neutron breakup reactions for exotic projectiles. Both nuclear and Coulomb induced reactions are considered and the potentials are treated to all orders in the interactions. Furthermore we introduce a technique which allows the use of the full Coulomb potential, thus including all multipoles besides the dipole. Results for deeply bound states as well as for halo initial states are presented and it is shown that experiments on heavy targets would be well suited to study exotic nuclei with tightly bound valence nucleons.
This talk examines a number of reaction mechanisms for scattering initiated by an exotic projectile. Comparisons are made with recent experimental data, in order to extract information on the peculiarity of the nuclear structure under extreme conditions and to test the accuracy of the available theoretical methods. Predictions for future experiments are also made.
The recent availability of radioactive beams has opened up a new era in nuclear physics. The interactions and structure of exotic nuclei close to the drip lines have been studied extensively world wide, and it has been revealed that unstable nuclei, having weakly bound nucleons, exhibit characteristic features such as a halo structure and a soft dipole excitation. We here review the developments of the physics of unstable nuclei in the past few decades. The topics discussed in this Chapter include the halo and skin structures, the Coulomb breakup, the dineutron correlation, the pair transfer r…
Since the pioneering discovery of molecular resonances in the 12C+12C reaction more than half a century ago a great deal of research work has been undertaken in alpha clustering. Our knowledge on physics of nuclear molecules has increased considerably and nuclear clustering remains one of the most fruitful domains of nuclear physics, facing some of the greatest challenges and opportunities in the years ahead. The occurrence of "exotic" shapes and Bose-Einstein alpha condensates in light N=Z alpha-conjugate nuclei is investigated. Various approaches of the superdeformed and hyperdeformed bands …
The magic numbers in exotic nuclei are discussed, and their novel origin is shown to be the spin-isospin dependent part of the nucleon-nucleon interaction in nuclei. The importance and robustness of this mechanism is shown in terms of meson exchange, G-matrix and QCD theories. In neutron-rich exotic nuclei, magic numbers such as N = 8, 20, etc. can disappear, while N = 6, 16, etc. arise, affecting the structure of lightest exotic nuclei to nucleosynthesis of heavy elements.
We discuss recent work on Coulomb dissociation and an effective-range theory of low-lying electromagnetic strength of halo nuclei. We propose to study Coulomb dissociation of a halo nucleus bound by a zero-range potential as a homework problem. We study the transition from stripping to bound and unbound states and point out in this context that the Trojan-Horse method is a suitable tool to investigate subthreshold resonances.
We review here theoretical models for describing various types of reactions involving light nuclei on the driplines. Structure features to be extracted from the analysis of such reaction data, as well as those that need to be incorporated in the reaction models for an adequate description of the processes, are also under focus. The major unsolved theoretical issues are discussed, along with some suggestions for future directions of the field.
Charge form factors corresponding to proton density distributions in exotic nuclei, such as $^{6,8}$He, $^{11}$Li, $^{17,19}$B and $^{14}$Be are calculated and compared. The results can be used as tests of various theoretical models for the exotic nuclei structure in possible future experiments using a colliding electron-exotic nucleus storage ring. The result of such a comparison would show the effect of the neutron halo or skin on the proton distributions in exotic nuclei.
In this contribution to the proceedings of the International Nuclear Physics Conference 2019, I review recent developments made in reaction models used to analyse data measured at radioactive-ion beam facilities to study exotic nuclear structures. I focus in particular on reactions like elastic scattering and breakup, which are used to study halo nuclei. Although these peculiar nuclei challenge usual nuclear-structure models, some can now be computed ab initio. This brief review illustrates the progresses made in nuclear-reaction theory in the last few years to improve the description of the p…
The connection between neutrino physics, nucleosynthesis of elements in astrophysical sites, laboratory measurements with rare exotic nuclei and astronomical observations is discussed. The key role played by neutrinos is emphasized and the close connection between neutrino physics and nucleosynthesis is highlighted.
Charge equilibration between two colliding nuclei can take place in the early stage of heavy-ion collisions. A basic mechanism of charge equilibration is presented in terms of the extension of single-particle motion from one nucleus to the other, from which the upper energy-limit of the bombarding energy is introduced for significant charge equilibration at the early stage of the collision. The formula for this limit is presented, and is compared to various experimental data. It is examined also by comparison to three-dimensional time-dependent density functional calculations. The suppression …
The main progresses in the multinucleon transfer reactions at energies close to the Coulomb barrier are reviewed. After a short presentation of the experimental progress and theoretical progress,the predicted production cross sections for unknown neutron-rich heavy nuclei and the trans-uranium nuclei are presented.
Intermediate energy Coulomb excitation and dissociation is a useful tool for nuclear structure and astrophysics studies. Low-lying strength in nuclei far from stability was discovered by this method. The effective range theory for low-lying strength in one-neutron halo nuclei is summarized and extended to two-neutron halo nuclei. This is of special interest in view of recent rather accurate experimental results on the low-lying electric dipole strength in $^{11}$Li. Another indirect approach to nuclear astrophysics is the Trojan horse method. It is pointed out that it is a suitable tool to inv…
The influence on fusion of coupling to the breakup process is investigated for reactions where at least one of the colliding nuclei has a sufficiently low binding energy for breakup to become an important process. Elastic scattering, excitation functions for sub-and near-barrier fusion cross sections, and breakup yields are analyzed for $^{6,7}$Li+$^{59}$Co. Continuum-Discretized Coupled-Channels (CDCC) calculations describe well the data at and above the barrier. Elastic scattering with $^{6}$Li (as compared to $^{7}$Li) indicates the significant role of breakup for weakly bound projectiles. …
Electron scattering will provide the most direct information about charge distribution in exotic nuclei. A technical proposal for an electron-heavy-ion collider has been incorporated in the GSI/Germany physics program (spokesperson: Haik Simon - GSI). The main purpose is to study the structure of nuclei far from the stability line. In this work I explore the possibilities to study charge distributions of nuclei far form the stability line with the proposed facility.
Low-energy multinucleon transfer reactions are shown to be very effective tool for the production and spectroscopic study of light exotic nuclei. The corresponding cross sections are found to be significantly larger as compared with high energy fragmentation reactions. Several optimal reactions for the production of extremely neutron rich isotopes of elements with Z=6-14 are proposed.
The occurrence of a bubble, due to an inversion of s$_{1/2}$ state with the state usually located above, is investigated. Proton bubbles in neutron-rich Argon isotopes are optimal candidates. Pairing effects which can play against the bubble formation are evaluated. They cannot prevent bubble formation in very neutron-rich argon isotopes such as $^{68}$Ar. This pleads for a measurement of the charge density of neutron-rich argon isotopes in the forthcoming years, with the advent of electron scattering experiments in next generation exotic beam facilities such as FAIR or RIBF.
Recent results obtained, often in fruitful collaboration with Japanese colleagues in the study of the interplay between single-particle and collective degrees of freedom are reviewed.
The Relativistic Continuum Hartree-Bogoliubov (RCHB) theory, which properly takes into account the pairing correlation and the coupling to (discretized) continuum via Bogoliubov transformation in a microscopic and self-consistent way, has been reviewed together with its new interpretation of the halo phenomena observed in light nuclei as the scattering of particle pairs into the continuum, the prediction of the exotic phenomena -- giant halos in nuclei near neutron drip line, the reproduction of interaction cross sections and charge-changing cross sections in light exotic nuclei in combination…
The progress in the modeling of exotic nuclei with an extreme neutron-to-proton ratio is discussed. Two topics are emphasized: (i) the quest for the universal microscopic nuclear energy density functional and (ii) the progress in the continuum shell model.
A great deal of research work has been undertaken in alpha-clustering study since the pioneering discovery of 12C+12C molecular resonances half a century ago. Our knowledge on physics of nuclear molecules has increased considerably and nuclear clustering remains one of the most fruitful domains of nuclear physics, facing some of the greatest challenges and opportunities in the years ahead. The occurrence of "exotic" shapes in light N=Z alpha-like nuclei is investigated. Various approaches of the superdeformed and hyperdeformed bands associated with quasimolecular resonant structures are presen…
Modelling breakup reactions with exotic nuclei represents a challenge in several ways. The CDCC method (continuum discretized coupled channel) has been very successful in its various applications. Here, we briefly mention a few developments that have contributed to the progress in this field as well as some pertinent problems that remain to be answered.
We discuss in this paper both the past and the present of two-nucleon transfer reactions, as well as try to foresee the near future of such studies in nuclei, induced by light as well as by heavy ion reactions.
In weakly bound exotic nuclei, number of excited bound states or narrow resonances is small and, moreover, they couple strongly to the particle continuum. Hence, these systems should be described in the quantum open system formalism which does not artificially separate the subspaces of (quasi-) bound and scattering states. The Shell Model Embedded in the Continuum provides a novel approach which solves this problem. Examples of application in sd-shell nuclei will be presented.
Investigation into the properties and structure of unstable nuclei far from stability remains a key avenue of research in modern nuclear physics. These efforts are motivated by the continual observation of unexpected structure phenomena in nuclei with unusual proton-to-neutron ratios. In recent decades, laser spectroscopy techniques have made significant contributions in our understanding of exotic nuclei in different mass regions encompassing almost the entire nuclear chart. This is achieved through determining multiple fundamental properties of nuclear ground and isomeric states, such as nuc…
Fano-resonances are investigated as a new continuum excitation mode in exotic nuclei. By theoretical model calculations we show that the coupling of a single particle elastic channel to closed core-excited channels leads to sharp resonances in the low-energy continuum. A signature for such bound states embedded in the continuum (BSEC) are characteristic interference effects leading to asymmetric line shapes. Following the quasiparticle-core coupling model we consider the coupling of 1-QP (one-quasiparticle) and 3-QP components and find a number of long-living resonance structures close to the …
The open issues in the development of models for the breakup of exotic nuclei and the link with the extraction of structure information from experimental data are reviewed. The question of the improvement of the description of exotic nuclei within reaction models is approached in the perspective of previous analyses of the sensitivity of these models to that description. Future developments of reaction models are suggested, such as the inclusion of various channels within one model. The search for new reaction observables that can emphasise more details of exotic nuclear structure is also prop…
Journal of Combinatorial Theory, Series B, 98(1):173-225, 2008n exotic nuclei are studied in the framework of a fully self-consistent relativistic continuum random phase approximation (RCRPA). In this method the contribution of the continuum spectrum to nuclear excitations is treated exactly by the single particle Green's function. Different from the cases in stable nuclei, there are strong low-energy excitations in neutron-rich nuclei and proton-rich nuclei. The neutron or proton excess pushes the centroid of the strength function to lower energies and increases the fragmentation of the stren…
Novel simple properties of the monopole component of the effective nucleon-nucleon interaction are presented, leading to the so-called monopole-based universal interaction. Shell structures are shown to change as functions of $N$ and $Z$ consistently with experiments. Some key cases of this shell evolution are discussed, clarifying the effects of central and tensor forces. The validity of the present tensor force is examined in terms of the low-momentum interaction V$_{low k}$ and the Q$_{box}$ formalism.
Indirect methods in nuclear astrophysics are discussed. Recent work on Coulomb dissociation and an effective-range theory of low-lying electromagnetic strength of halo nuclei is presented. Coulomb dissociation of a halo nucleus bound by a zero-range potential is proposed as a homework problem (for further references see G. Baur and S. Typel, nucl-th/0504068). It is pointed out that the Trojan-Horse method (G. Baur, F. Rösel, D. Trautmann and R. Shyam, Phys. Rep. 111 (1984) 333) is a suitable tool to investigate subthreshold resonances.
For a better understanding of the dynamics of exotic nuclei it is of crucial importance to develop a practical microscopic theory easy to be applied to a wide range of masses. Theoretically the basic task consists in formulating an easy solvable theory able to reproduce structures and transitions of known nuclei which should be then used to calculate the sparely known properties of proton- or neutron-rich nuclei. In this paper we start by calculating energies and distributions of A\leq4 nuclei withing a unitary correlation model restricted to include only two-body correlations. The structure o…
The bare NN-potential, parametrized so as to reproduce the nuclear phase shifts leads to a sizable Cooper pair binding energy in nuclei along the stability valley. It is a much debated matter whether this value accounts for the "empirical" value of the pairing gap or whether a similarly important contribution arises from the exchange of collective vibrations between Cooper pair partners. In keeping with the fact that two-particle transfer reactions are the specific probe of pairing in nuclei, and that exotic halo nuclei like 11Li are extremely polarizable, we find that the recent studied react…
We review recent studies of the evolution of collective excitations in atomic nuclei far from the valley of $β$-stability. Collective degrees of freedom govern essential aspects of nuclear structure, and for several decades the study of collective modes such as rotations and vibrations has played a vital role in our understanding of complex properties of nuclei. The multipole response of unstable nuclei and the possible occurrence of new exotic modes of excitation in weakly-bound nuclear systems, present a rapidly growing field of research, but only few experimental studies of these phenomena …
The competition among reaction processes of a weakly-bound projectile at intermediate times of a slow collision has been unraveled. This has been done using a two-center molecular continuum within a semiclassical, time-dependent coupled-channel reaction model. Dynamical probabilities of elastic scattering, transfer and breakup agree with those derived from the direct integration of the time-dependent Schrödinger equation, demonstrating the usefulness of a two-center molecular continuum for gaining insights into the reaction dynamics of exotic nuclei.
We present model results for the two-halo-neutron correlation functions, $C_{nn}$, for the dissociation process of light exotic nuclei modelled as two neutrons and a core. A minimum is predicted for $C_{nn}$ as a function of the relative momentum of the two neutrons, $p_{nn}$, due to the coherence of the neutrons in the halo and final state interaction. Studying the systems $^{14}$Be, $^{11}$Li and $^{6}$He within this model, we show that the numerical asymptotic limit, $C_{nn}\to 1$, occurs only for $p_{nn}\gtrsim$ 400 MeV$/c$, while such limit is reached for much lower values of $p_{nn}$ in …
Theoretical results for giant resonances in the three doubly magic exotic nuclei $^{78}$Ni, $^{100}$Sn and $^{132}$Sn are obtained from Hartree-Fock (HF) plus Random Phase Approximation (RPA) calculations using the D1S parametrization of the Gogny two-body effective interaction. Special attention is paid to full consistency between the HF field and the RPA particle-hole residual interaction. The results for the exotic nuclei, on average, appear similar to those of stable ones, especially for quadrupole and octupole states. More exotic systems have to be studied in order to confirm such a trend…
Since the discovery of molecular resonances in $^{12}$C+$^{12}$C in the early sixties a great deal of research work has been undertaken to study alpha-clustering. Our knowledge on physics of nuclear molecules has increased considerably and nuclear clustering remains one of the most fruitful domains of nuclear physics, facing some of the greatest challenges and opportunities in the years ahead. Occurrence of "exotic" shapes and Bose-Einstein Condensates in light alpha-cluster nuclei are investigated. Various approaches of superdeformed/hyperdeformed shapes associated with quasimolecular resonan…
We use a relativistic mean field model to study the charge density distributions of exotic oxygen isotopes. Nonlinear isoscalar-isovector terms which are not constrained by the present data are considered and the $ρNN$ tensor coupling that does not affect the symmetry energy in the mean field model is included. Strong correlations between the neutron radius of $^{208}$Pb and the charge radius of $^{12,13,23,24}$O are found. The $ρNN$ tensor coupling explicitly enhances the radius correlations between $^{23,24}$O and $^{208}$Pb. This enhancement is due to the neutron occupation of the orbital $…
This paper presents a short overview of the shell-model approach with realistic effective interactions to the study of exotic nuclei. We first give a sketch of the current state of the art of the theoretical framework of this approach, focusing on the main ingredients and most relevant recent advances. Then, we present some selected results for neutron-rich nuclei in various mass regions, namely oxygen isotopes, $N=40$ isotones, and nuclei around $^{132}$Sn, to show the merit as well as the limits of these calculations.
We report on systematical optical model (OM) and continuum discretized coupled channel (CDCC) calculations applied to describe the elastic scattering angular distributions of exotic and stable nuclei projectiles on heavy targets. Our optical potential (OP) is composed of the nuclear microscopic double folding São Paulo potential (SPP), derived from the nonlocal nature of the interaction, and the Coulomb dipole polarization (CDP) potential, derived from the semiclassical theory of Coulomb excitation. The OP is compared to the trivial equivalent local potential (TELP), extracted from CDCC calcul…
Starting from successful self-consistent mean-field models, this paper discusses why and how to go beyond the mean field approximation. To include long-range correlations from fluctuations in collective degrees of freedom, one has to consider symmetry restoration and configuration mixing, which give access to ground-state correlations and spectroscopy.
Slater determinants built from the single-particle wave functions of the analytically solvable Ginocchio potential are used to approximate the self-consistent Hartree-Fock solutions for the ground states of nuclei. The results indicate that the Ginocchio potential provides a good parametrization of the nuclear mean field for a wide range of nuclei, including those at the limit of particle stability.
The effect of breakup is investigated for the medium weight $^{6}$Li+$^{59}$Co system in the vicinity of the Coulomb barrier. The strong coupling of breakup/transfer channels to fusion is discussed within a comparison of predictions of the Continuum Discretized Coupled-Channels model which is also applied to $^{6}$He+$^{59}$Co a reaction induced by the borromean halo nucleus $^{6}$He.
In this contribution, the eikonal approximation developed by Roy Glauber to describe high-energy quantum collisions is presented. This approximation has been-and still is-extensively used to analyse reaction measurements performed to study the structure of nuclei far from stability. This presentation focuses more particularly on the application of the eikonal approximation to the study of halo nuclei in modern nuclear physics. To emphasise Roy Glauber's legacy in today's nuclear physics, recent extensions of this model are reviewed.
A deformed relativistic Hartree-Bogoliubov (DRHB) model is developed aiming at a proper description of exotic nuclei, particularly deformed ones with large spatial extension. In order to give an adequate description of both the contribution of the continuum and the large spatial distribution in exotic nuclei, the DRHB equations are solved in a Woods-Saxon basis in which the radial wave functions have proper asymptotic behaviors at large distance from the nuclear center which is crucial for the formation of halo. The formalism and the numerical procedure of the DRHB model in a Woods-Saxon basis…
We report on a study of exotic nuclei around doubly magic 132Sn in terms of the shell model employing a realistic effective interaction derived from the CD-Bonn nucleon-nucleon potential. The short-range repulsion of the bare potential is renormalized by constructing a smooth low-momentum potential, V-low-k, that is used directly as input for the calculation of the effective interaction. In this paper we focus attention on the nuclei 134Sn and 135Sb which, with an N/Z ratio of 1.68 and 1.65, respectively, are at present the most exotic nuclei beyond 132Sn for which information exists on excite…
By performing fully 3D symmetry-unrestricted Skyrme-Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov calculations, we discuss shape coexistence and possibility of exotic deformations simultaneously breaking the reflection and axial symmetries in proton-rich N=Z nuclei: 64Ge, 68Se, 72Kr, 76Sr, 80Zr and 84Mo. Results of calculation indicate that the oblate ground state of 68Se is extremely soft against the Y33 triangular deformation, and that the low-lying spherical minimum coexisting with the prolate ground state in 80Zr may be unstable against the Y32 tetrahedral deformation.
This work presents an approach to nuclear spin-isospin response, which is capable of describing the overall strength distribution up to high excitation energies, including the fine structure of the low-lying strength, and resolving the long-standing quenching problem. The model is a covariant realization of the nuclear field theory and based on the self-consistent extensions of the covariant energy density functional (CEDF) theory. Results of the recent calculations for spin-isospin response of ordinary and exotic medium-mass nuclei are presented and discussed.
The study of exotic nuclear structures, such as halo nuclei, is usually performed through nuclear reactions. An accurate reaction model coupled to a realistic description of the projectile is needed to correctly interpret experimental data. In this contribution, we briefly summarise the assumptions made within the modelling of reactions involving halo nuclei. We describe briefly the Continuum-Discretised Coupled Channel method (CDCC) and the Dynamical Eikonal Approximation (DEA) in particular and present a comparison between them for the breakup of 15C on Pb at 68AMeV. We show the problem face…
Nuclear superfludity in exotic nuclei close to the drip lines and in the inner crust matter of neutron stars have common features which can be treated with the same theoretical tools. In the first part of my lecture I discuss how two such tools, namely the HFB approach and the linear response theory can be used to describe the pairing correlations in weakly bound nuclei, in which the unbound part of the energy spectrum becomes important. Then, using the same models, I shall discuss how the nuclear superfluidity can affect the thermal properties of the inner crust of neutron stars.
Using HF+BCS method we study light nuclei with nuclear charge in the range $2 \leq Z \leq 8$ and lying near the neutron drip line. The HF method uses effective Skyrme forces and allows for axial deformations. We find that the neutron drip line forms stability peninsulas at $^{18}$He and $^{40}$C. These isotopes are found to be stable against one neutron emission and possess the highest known neutron to proton ratio in stable nuclei.
The structure of exotic nuclei sheds new light on the linkage of the nuclear structure to the nucleonic interaction. The self-consistent mean-field (SCMF) theories are useful to investigate this linkage, which are applicable to many nuclei covering almost the whole range of the nuclear chart without artificial truncation of model space. For this purpose, it is desired to develop effective interaction for the SCMF calculations well connected to the bare nucleonic interaction. Focusing on ground-state properties, I show results of the SCMF calculations primarily with the M3Y-type semi-realistic …
We propose an extension of the Continuum Discretized Coupled Channels (CDCC) method, where the projectile is described by a microscopic cluster model. This microscopic generalization (MCDCC) only relies on nucleon-target interactions, and therefore presents an important predictive power. Core excitations can be included without any further parameter. As an example we investigate the $\lipb$ elastic scattering at $E_{lab}=27$ and 35 MeV. The $^7$Li nucleus is known to present an $α+t$ cluster structure, and is well described by the Resonating Group Method. An excellent agreement is obtained for…
Theoretical predictions and experimental discoveries for neutron-rich, short-lived nuclei far from stability indicate that the familiar concept of nucleonic shell structure should be considered as less robust than previously thought. The notion of single-particle motion in exotic nuclei is reviewed with a particular focus on three aspects: (i) variations of nuclear mean field with neutron excess due to tensor interactions; (ii) importance of many-body correlations; and (iii) influence of open channels on properties of weakly bound and unbound nuclear states.
