Shell evolution and emerging paradigm changes

Abstract

The shell structure conceived by Mayer and Jensen in 1949 has been shown to be quite appropriate for stable and near-stable nuclei, but substantial deviations from it have also been observed more recently for exotic nuclei with notable neutron excess. Such changes of the basic picture of the nuclear shell structure, called the shell evolution, seem to be the subject studied most extensively and most elaborately by RI beam experiments worldwide. An overview of the shell evolution is presented in this talk, from both theoretical and experimental perspectives. The shell structure is shown to be varied, for instance, from the one presented by Mayer and Jensen, by particular types of the monopole components of the effective nucleon-nucleon interaction in nuclei. Among various contributions, the importance of the tensor force is illuminated here, with an outstanding example: the emergence of new neutron magic number 34 in neutron-rich Ca isotopes. The mechanism of the shell evolution produces significant impacts also on the nuclear shapes. Type II shell evolution shifts the excitation energies of intruder deformed bands, for instance, in some Ni isotopes. In other more general cases, the monopole interaction is shown to produce unexpected crucial effects on the patters of rotational bands of heavy deformed nuclei. In fact, the shape of the ellipsoidal deformation is investigated by large-scale shell model calculations, which is nothing but the Monte Carlo Shell Model. The unique role of the monopole component of the tensor force is clarified: the interplay between this monopole interaction and the quadrupole interaction provides us with various patterns of triaxial shapes for many nuclei, such as 166Er, one of the traditional prolate deformed heavy nuclei. Thus, the prolate preponderance hypothesis by Aage Bohr is investigated for its microscopic validity. Some of the nuclear paradigms are changing now in this way, due to emerging aspects of nuclear-force effects.