Nuclear Theory: Structure and Reactions

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

The No Core Shell Model for Nuclear Structure Over the last 15 years our research group has been developing a firstprinciples approach for calculating the properties of atomic nuclei,starting from the fundamental interactions among the protons and neutrons,both pairwise and in terms of triplets. The key to the successes of this approach is the treatment of all the protons and neutrons in the nucleus as being active, instead of holding some of them static, that is, as aninert core. Hence, the name of our approach, the No Core Shell Model. Bytreating all particles active, we are able to calculate exactly themedium-modified interaction among particles inside the nucleus and,thereby, the details of the nuclear structure produced by these interactions. Besides giving us microscopic results for the theoretical properties of atomic nuclei, our formalism allows us to analyze different theoretical models for the interactions among three particles, the so-called threenucleon interaction. Understanding the nature of the three-nucleoninteraction is one of the most fundamental problems in theoretical nuclearphysics at this time. This formalism can also be used for investigatingthree-particle interactions in other physical systems. In order to perform our large-scale no-core shell-model calculations, we have developed several new shell-model computer codes, which can handle up toone-billion single-particle basis states. Again such computer codes haveapplications to the solving of important, outstanding problems in other fields of research, such as in condensed matter physics and in chemistry.Our research problem has also played a significant role in educating andtraining a new generation of young nuclear-structure theorists. During the course of our current research program on the no-core shell model, wehave educated five new PhD nuclear theorists and trained and mentored sixpostdoctoral research associates at the University of Arizona. Severalmore graduate students and postdoctoral research associates have been involved our collaborations with other nuclear-theory groups in the USA, Europe, Australia, and Tunisia.