Special Issue Weakly Bound Exotic Nuclei

This book is a collection of talks presented at the International Symposium on Exotic Nuclei, held at Lake Baikal, Russia, on 24 OCo 28 July 2001. The talks were given by the leading scientists in the physics of exotic nuclei.Among the topics of the Symposium were the following: production and study of properties of nuclei in extreme states, strongly deformed nuclei, highly excited nuclei and nuclei far from the line of stability as well as nuclei having large angular momenta.New results of investigations are presented in the book OCo in particular, the data on new nuclei with proton or neutron haloes, on the changes in the shell structure of nuclei near the drip lines, and on the structure of exotic nuclei, including information on the island of inversion. The latest results on the synthesis of new superheavy elements are also provided, and existing detecting devices and accelerators of exotic nuclei, as well as future projects for the creation of similar set-ups, are presented."

The International Conference on Exotic Nuclei and Atomic Masses (ENAM) has gained the status of the premier meeting for the physics of nuclei far from stability. The selected and refereed papers presenting the main results constitute valuable proceedings that offer everyone working in this field an authoritative and comprehensive source of reference.

"The proceedings of the conference include recent results of experimental and theoretical research on the following topics: reaction dynamics, fusion-fission phenomena, neutron physics, deformed shells, nuclear spectroscopy, and exotic nuclei."--Publisher's website

While neutron halos were discovered 30 years ago, this is the first book written on the subject of this exotic form of nuclei that typically contain many more neutrons than stable isotopes of those elements. It provides an introductory description of the halo and outlines the discovery and evidence for its existence. It also discusses different theoretical models of the halo's structure as well as models and techniques in reaction theory that have allowed us to study the halo. This is written at a level accessible to graduate students starting a PhD in nuclear physics. Halo nuclei are an exotic form of atomic nuclei that contain typically many more neutrons than stable isotopes of those elements. To give you a famous example, an atom of the element lithium has three electrons orbiting a nucleus with three protons and, usually, either 3 or 4 neutrons. The difference in the number of neutrons gives us two different isotopes of lithium, Li6 and Li7. But if you keep adding neutrons to the nucleus you will eventually reach Li11, with still 3 protons (that means it's lithium) but with 8 neutrons. This nucleus is so neutron-rich that the last two are very weakly bound to the rest of the nucleus (a Li9 core). What happens is a quantum mechanical effect: the two outer neutrons float around beyond the rest of the nuclear core at a distance that is beyond the range of the force that is holding them to the core. This is utterly counterintuitive. It means the nucleus looks like a core plus extended diffuse cloud of neutron probability: the halo. The author of the book, Jim Al-Khalili, is a theoretician who published some of the key papers on the structure of the halo in the mid and late 90s and was the first to determine its true size. This monograph is based on review articles he has written on the mathematical models used to determine the halo structure and the reactions used to model that structure.

Key Topics in Nuclear Structure is the eighth in a well established series of conferences and is devoted to the discussion of significant topics in nuclear structure. Both experimental and theoretical issues at the forefront of current research on the subject are covered by leading physicists. In particular, on the experimental side the state of the art and the envisaged developments in the most important laboratories, where rare isotope beams are available, are reviewed in detail. On the theoretical side, the various approaches to a fundamental theory of nuclear structure starting from the nucleon-nucleon interaction are discussed, ranging from the few-body systems, where ab initio calculations are possible, to the complex nuclei, where the shell model plays a key role.The proceedings have been selected for coverage in:• Index to Scientific & Technical Proceedings® (ISTP® / ISI Proceedings)• Index to Scientific & Technical Proceedings (ISTP CDROM version / ISI Proceedings)• CC Proceedings — Engineering & Physical Sciences

These proceedings present the most recent progress made by Japanese and Italian researchers in the field of heavy ion physics. They cover both experimental and theoretical aspects from low energies (Tandem Van de Graaff accelerators) to medium energies (LINAC, Cyclotrons) up to relativistic energies (LHC at CERN).The majority of the experiments presented have been performed in the two largest Italian laboratories: LNL, Legnaro-Padova, with the Tandem + SC Linac (ALPI); LNS, Catania, with the Tandem + SC Cyclotron; and in one of the largest Japanese facilities: RIKEN, Saitama, with the Ring Cyclotron.The future Italian developments with relativistic heavy ions at LHC (CERN) are also presented, as well as experiments in collaboration with other laboratories, like JAERI, CNS (University of Tokyo), the Tandem Accelerator Center (Tsukuba), GANIL (France), and the Accelerator Laboratory in Munich, Germany.The highlights of the proceedings, and the area in which most experimental efforts are presently involved, are: research with radioactive ion beams at RIKEN with the RIPS separator; spectroscopy study at LNL with the GASP/EUROBALL 4πγ spectrometers; and intermediate energy hysics (deep inelastic, fragmentation) at LNS.Also presented are the future trends in Japan at RIKEN, RiBeam Factory, and JHP at KEK, and in Italy EXCYT at LNS and SPES at LNL. All these new developments are strongly connected with production and subsequent exploitation of radioactive ion beams, and offer a very promising, fertile future.