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 from the $β$-stability line, such as neutron or proton halos, the shell evolution and changes of nuclear magic numbers, the island of inversion, soft-dipole excitations, clustering effects, new radioactivities, giant neutron halos, the shape decoupling between core and valence nucleons in deformed halo nuclei, etc. In this contribution, I will present a review of theoretical study of exotic nuclear structure. I will first introduce characteristic features and new physics connected with exotic nuclear phenomena: the weakly-bound feature, the large-spatial extension in halo nuclei, deformation effects in halo nuclei, the shell evolution, new radioactivities and clustering effects. Then I will highlight some recent progresses corresponding to these features.
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.
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…
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 …
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.
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…
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…
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…
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.
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…
Atomic nuclei are composite systems, and they may be dynamically excited during nuclear reactions. Such excitations are not only relevant to inelastic scattering but they also affect other reaction processes such as elastic scattering and fusion. The coupled-channels approach is a framework which can describe these reaction processes in a unified manner. It expands the total wave function of the system in terms of the ground and excited states of the colliding nuclei, and solves the coupled Shrödinger equations to obtain the $S$-matrix, from which several cross sections can be constructed. Thi…
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 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…
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.
