Structure and Reactions With Exotic Nuclei

Abstract

The INFN (Italian National Institute for Nuclear Physics) has approved a national theoretical network on "Structure and Reactions with Exotic Nuclei". The project involves the INFN branches of Laboratorio Nazionale del Sud, Padova and Pisa. The aim of the project is to start coordinating and to homogenize the research already performed in Italy in this field and to strengthen and improve the Italian contribution on the international scenario. Furthermore it aims at creating a solid theoretical structure to support future experimental facilities at the INFN national laboratories such as SPES at LNL and EXCYT at LNS. A review of present and future activities is presented.been carried out within pre-existing national projects related to a wide spectrum of themes of nuclear dynamics, structure and reactions using many body techniques, shell model, collective modes and semiclassical or fully quantum mechanical approaches to peripheral and central reactions such as transfer and breakup, fusion, elastic scattering via microscopic optical potentials, multifragmentation.The goal of our project is to start coordinating and homogenizing such efforts to improve our mutual understanding, and to strengthen the Italian contribution on the international scenario. Furthermore our efforts will help creating a solid theoretical structure to support future experimental activities at the INFN national laboratories.In fact, in the last two decades, the use of radioactive beams of rare isotopes in several laboratories around the world (REX-ISOLDE at CERN, GANIL in France, GSI in Germany, CRC, Louvain la Neuve in Belgium, RIKEN in Japan, DUBNA in Russia, Argonne, MSU, Oak Ridge, Notre Dame in USA , etc.) has provided new research directions and an increasing number of researchers all over the world is converging on such subject. The INFN in Italy is also heavily involved in this field. The facility EXCYT and the large acceptance spectrometer called MAGNEX are being completed at Laboratorio Nazionale del Sud. On the other hand the first step of the SPES project at the Laboratorio Nazionale di Legnaro has been approved in the form of a proton driver. Furthermore the INFN is promoting the new European Radioactive Beam Facility (EURISOL). Members of our collaboration are actively participating in NuPECC working groups, in particular in the preparation of "The Physics Case" for EURISOL, whose report is available at http://www.ganil.fr/eurisol/Final Report/A-Physics-Case-20-Dec-02.pdf, and in general of the NuPECC Long Range Plan.The relatively new subject of exotic nuclei is of fundamental importance because while all existing theories for the nuclear interaction and the many body nuclear structure have been based on the study of stable nuclei, very little is known about the way in which standard nuclear models work for the description of unstable nuclei with anomalous N/Z ratio. Important questions to answer are for example: the isospin dependence of the effective nuclear interaction, the modification of the traditional shell sequence with ...