Current Status of Nuclear Physics Research

Abstract

In this review we discuss the current status of research in nuclear physics which is being carried out in different centers in the World. For this purpose we supply a short account of the development in the area which evolved over the last 9 decades, since the discovery of the neutron. The evolution of the physics of the atomic nucleus went through many stages as more data become available. We briefly discuss models introduced to discern the physics behind the experimental discoveries, such as the shell model, the collective model, the statistical model, the interacting boson model, etc., some of these models may be seemingly in conflict with each other, but this was shown to be only apparent.The richness of the ideas and abundance of theoretical models attests to the important fact that the nucleus is a really singular system in the sense that it evolves from two-body bound states such as the deuteron, to few-body bound states, such as 4 He, 7 Li, 9 Be etc. and up the ladder to heavier bound nuclei containing up to more than 200 nucleons. Clearly statistical mechanics, usually employed in systems with very large number of particles, would seemingly not work for such finite systems as the nuclei, neither do other theories which are applicable to condensed matter. The richness of nuclear physics stems from these restrictions. New theories and models are presently being developed. Theories of the structure and reactions of neutron-rich and proton-rich nuclei, called exotic nuclei, halo nuclei, or Borromean nuclei, deal with the wealth of experimental data that became available in the last 35 years. Further, nuclear astrophysics and stellar and Big Bang nucleosynthesis have become a more mature subject. Due to limited space, this review only covers a few selected topics, mainly those with which the authors have worked on. Our aimed potential readers of this review are nuclear physicists and physicists in other areas, as well as graduate students interested in pursuing a career in nuclear physics.

Elastic Coulomb breakup ofNa34

“…It is evident from the figure as well as from the values in Table II that deformation in the nucleus makes the full width at half maxima (FWHM) of the distributions narrower (the peak height rises with increase in deformation). But the FWHM value even for zero quadrupole deformation is <44 MeV/c (the half-maximum width for established halos like 11 Be and 19 C [38,44]), suggesting that 34 Na is indeed halo, even in the absence of any deformation and if at all, its halo character only increases with increasing β 2 . The neutron energy-angular distribution for our breakup reaction is displayed in Fig.…”

“…It is evident from the figure as well as from the values in Table II that deformation in the nucleus makes the full width at half maxima (FWHM) of the distributions narrower (the peak height rises with increase in deformation). But the FWHM value even for zero quadrupole deformation is <44 MeV/c (the half-maximum width for established halos like 11…”

“…Considerable interest has also been shown in exotic-halo nuclei ever since they first came to light [7]. The theoretically explained models of the various reaction cycles, viz., the pp-chains, CNO cycle, the r -, and s-processes, etc., led to the study of nuclei near the drip line in the medium mass region as they are also speculated to form connecting links within these chains which produce energy to power the stars [4,[9][10][11]. In Ref.…”

Neutron occupancy of the 0d5/2 orbital and the N=16 shell closure in 24O

“…The nucleon-nucleus cross section in nuclear matter developed in Refs. [31][32][33] and the densities of the projectile, or core, folded with the matter density of proton were employed to introduce the imaginary part of the optical potential.…”

Inclusive breakup of three-fragment weakly bound nuclei

“…Breakup reactions are of fundamental importance in collisions involving weakly bound quantum systems. [1]. Diatomic molecules, and two-fragment nuclei when scatter from a target may undergo a fragmentation process where one of the ions or the fragment is observed while the other fragment and the target are not.…”