Super Exotic NUClear systems at the limit of stability: Core excitations in halo nuclei and few-nucleon emitters
Funding: MSCA-IF-2020 (Grant Agreement No. 101023609, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, REA, European Commission)
Researcher: Dr. Jesús Casal (Dpto. Física Atómica, Molecular y Nuclear, Universidad de Sevilla)
SENUC is a project aiming at improving our knowledge of the structure and dynamics of Super Exotic NUClear systems at the limit of stability, focusing on the properties of halo nuclei and few-nucleon emitters, through the development of innovative coupled-channel models including core excitations within both collective and microscopic approaches and their implementation in novel computer codes that will be made publicly available. This action will be developed by integrating the researcher in the renowned Nuclear Physics group of the University of Seville, with a strong interest on the theoretical interpretation of recent and new experiments at Radioactive Ion Beam (RIB) facilities in Europe and worldwide. The research objectives are focused on: 1) the description of core correlation effects in processes involving super exotic nuclear systems, and 2) bridging the gap between few-body collective models and the microscopic many-body structure of nuclei at the dripline boundaries and beyond. A proper knowledge of these topics is crucial to assess how shell evolution shapes the limits of the nuclear chart, with implications for open questions in Physics regarding the strong force and nucleon-nucleon correlations. Accordingly, SENUC will provide an innovative theoretical framework to support the most recent advances in RIB physics, describing processes induced by or involving the most exotic nuclear systems that are available or will be soon produced in next-generation facilities such as FAIR-GSI, FRIB-MSU or RIBF-RIKEN.
Clustering in light nuclei: halo, correlations and exotic decays
At the limits of stability, some nuclei present a "cluster" structure, comprising a compact nucleus called core and one or more valence nucleons (protons or neutrons) which are very loosely bound. This leads to a diffuse matter distribution that we call halo. As a consequence, halo nuclei are huge compared to their neighbors in the Nuclear Chart, and this has a strong impact in nuclear reactions involving them.
Typical examples of halo nuclei are ¹¹Be (¹⁰Be core plus 1 neutron) and ⁶He (⁴He core plus 2 neutrons). In the case of two-neutron halo nuclei, the correlations between the valence neutrons are crucial to hold the system together, pushing the boundaries of the neutron dripline.
In some cases, the halo can sustain more than one or two valence neutrons, giving rise to even more exotic structures ("super halo"). A good example is ⁸He (⁴He core plus 4 neutrons), the last bound isotope of helium. But in most cases, adding two additional neutrons to a two-neutron halo leads to unbound two-neutron emitters and their exotic decay.
Implementation of core-excitation effects in reactions induced by core+N+N nuclei, such as two-neutron halos.
Characterization of the structure and decay properties of two-nucleon resonances, with focus on Pauli effects.
Comparison between collective and microscopic degrees of freedom in structure, reactions and decay.
The scientific production of the action and the associated data can be found here.