Gamow Shell Model

This book provides the first graduate-level, self-contained introduction to recent developments that lead to the formulation of the configuration-interaction approach for open quantum systems, the Gamow shell model, which provides a unitary description of quantum many-body system in different regimes of binding, and enables the unification in the description of nuclear structure and reactions. The Gamow shell model extends and generalizes the phenomenologically successful nuclear shell model to the domain of weakly-bound near-threshold states and resonances, offering a systematic tool to understand and categorize data on nuclear spectra, moments, collective excitations, particle and electromagnetic decays, clustering, elastic and inelastic scattering cross sections, and radiative capture cross sections of interest to astrophysics. The approach is of interest beyond nuclear physics and based on general properties of quasi-stationary solutions of the Schrödinger equation – so-called Gamow states. For the benefit of graduate students and newcomers to the field, the quantum-mechanical fundamentals are introduced in some detail. The text also provides a historical overview of how the field has evolved from the early days of the nuclear shell model to recent experimental developments, in both nuclear physics and related fields, supporting the unified description. The text contains many worked examples and several numerical codes are introduced to allow the reader to test different aspects of the continuum shell model discussed in the book.

This book provides the first graduate-level, self-contained introduction to recent developments that lead to the formulation of the configuration-interaction approach for open quantum systems, the Gamow shell model, which provides a unitary description of quantum many-body system in different regimes of binding, and enables the unification in the description of nuclear structure and reactions. The Gamow shell model extends and generalizes the phenomenologically successful nuclear shell model to the domain of weakly-bound near-threshold states and resonances, offering a systematic tool to understand and categorize data on nuclear spectra, moments, collective excitations, particle and electromagnetic decays, clustering, elastic and inelastic scattering cross sections, and radiative capture cross sections of interest to astrophysics. The approach is of interest beyond nuclear physics and based on general properties of quasi-stationary solutions of the Schrödinger equation - so-called Gamow states. For the benefit of graduate students and newcomers to the field, the quantum-mechanical fundamentals are introduced in some detail. The text also provides a historical overview of how the field has evolved from the early days of the nuclear shell model to recent experimental developments, in both nuclear physics and related fields, supporting the unified description. The text contains many worked examples and several numerical codes are introduced to allow the reader to test different aspects of the continuum shell model discussed in the book.

Nowadays experimental nuclear physics pushes its limits towards highly unstable nuclei. The theoretical description of proton-rich and neutronrich nuclei or superheavy elements has become an important part of the modern nuclear physics. The main tool to investigate such unstable nuclei concerns radioactive decays, from proton emission to fission processes. We review the main theoretical methods describing decay processes induced by the strong interaction, like Coupled channels method for Gamow resonances, R-matrix theory, Distorted wave approach, Semiclassical approach, Multi step and Two center shell model. Thus, most of the book is addressed to a broad audience within the nuclear physics community. Secondly, this book is an attempt to clarify some fundamental aspects connected with the fine structure or anisotropy in alpha decay and ternary cold fission. Finally, the self consistent microscopic theory of the alpha decay is analyzed.

Nuclear Physics in a Nutshell provides a clear, concise, and up-to-date overview of the atomic nucleus and the theories that seek to explain it. Bringing together a systematic explanation of hadrons, nuclei, and stars for the first time in one volume, Carlos A. Bertulani provides the core material needed by graduate and advanced undergraduate students of physics to acquire a solid understanding of nuclear and particle science. Nuclear Physics in a Nutshell is the definitive new resource for anyone considering a career in this dynamic field. The book opens by setting nuclear physics in the context of elementary particle physics and then shows how simple models can provide an understanding of the properties of nuclei, both in their ground states and excited states, and also of the nature of nuclear reactions. It then describes: nuclear constituents and their characteristics; nuclear interactions; nuclear structure, including the liquid-drop model approach, and the nuclear shell model; and recent developments such as the nuclear mean-field and the nuclear physics of very light nuclei, nuclear reactions with unstable nuclear beams, and the role of nuclear physics in energy production and nucleosynthesis in stars. Throughout, discussions of theory are reinforced with examples that provide applications, thus aiding students in their reading and analysis of current literature. Each chapter closes with problems, and appendixes address supporting technical topics.

Few-body physics covers a rich and wide variety of phenomena, ranging from the very lowest energy scales of atomic and molecular physics to high-energy particle physics. The papers contained in the present volume provide an apercu of recent progress in the field from both the theoretical and experimental perspectives and are based on work presented at the “22nd International Conference on Few-Body Problems in Physics”. This book is geared towards academics and graduate students involved in the study of systems which present few-body characteristics and those interested in the related mathematical and computational techniques.

The two most important developments in nuclear physics were the shell model and the collective model. The former gives the formal framework for a description of nuclei in terms of interacting neutrons and protons. The latter provides a very physical but phenomenological framework for interpreting the observed properties of nuclei. A third approach, based on variational and mean-field methods, brings these two perspectives together in terms of the so-called unified models. Together, these three approaches provide the foundations on which nuclear physics is based. They need to be understood by everyone practicing or teaching nuclear physics, and all those who wish to gain an understanding of the foundations of the models and their relationships to microscopic theory as given by recent developments in terms of dynamical symmetries.This book provides a simple presentation of the models and theory of nuclear collective structure, with an emphasis on the physical content and the ways they are used to interpret data. Part 1 presents the basic phenomenological collective vibrational and rotational models as introduced by Bohr and Mottelson and their many colleagues. It also describes the extensions of these models to parallel unified models in which neutrons and protons move in a mean-field with collective degrees of freedom. Part 2 presents the predominant theories used to describe the collective properties of nuclei in terms of interacting nucleons. These theories, which are shared with other many-body systems, are shown to emerge naturally from the unified models of Part 1.