| Title: | EXOTIC NUCLEI, QUANTUM PHASE TRANSITIONS, AND THE EVOLUTION OF STRUCTURE |
| DOI No: | 10.1142/9789812776150_0039 |
| Source: | PHYSICS OF UNSTABLE NUCLEI (pp 251-258)
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| Author(s): | R. F. CASTEN
A.W. Wright Nuclear Structure Laboratory, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, 06520-8124, USA
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| Abstract: | This paper focuses on the opportunities for nuclear structure physics provided by new generation facilities for exotic beams of nuclei far from the valley of stability. These nuclei offer the possibility to study the physics of weakly bound, strongly interacting quantal systems, as well as the evolution of structure across wide swaths of the nuclear chart. This talk will focus on the latter area, with particular emphasis on the link between microscopic and macroscopic perspectives on nuclear structure. In particular, the evolution of collective behavior, and especially the occurrence of quantal phase transitions in the equilibrium shapes of nuclei, will be discussed both from the perspective of nuclei as geometric objects and from that of the microscopic interactions that drive configuration mixing, changes in shell structure, and the development of collectivity and deformation in nuclei. Important for the former discussion will be the new concept of critical point symmetries and the plethora of related new models it has spawned. The latter discussion will focus on the effects of the valence proton-neutron interaction, including ways of extracting those interaction strengths empirically from nuclear masses as well as new theoretical calculations of them. |
| Full Text: | View full text in PDF format (345KB) |
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