Nucleon shell models

Between the two extremes of the spheroidal liquid drop (and its rotational spectra) and of the nucleonic shell model, one might still imagine a niche for the presence of a-particles. Much like the helium atom has its first excited level (S = J = 1, L = 0) at higher energy than any other neutral atom, the first excited I-level reported32 of helium 4 occurs at 20.1 MeV (it may be noted from Eq.(6) that the energy needed to knock off a neutron is 19.80 MeV) and is totally symmetric. For the discussion below of the possible structure of baryons, it is very important to analyze the... 

The Relation between the Shell Model and Layers of Spherons.—In the customary nomenclature for nucleon orbitals the principal quantum number n is taken to be nr + 1, where nr> the radial quantum number, is the number of nodes in the radial wave function. (For electrons n is taken to be nT + l + 1.) The nucleon distribution function for n = 1 corresponds to a single shell (for Is a ball) about the origin. For n = 2 the wave function has a small negative value inside the nodal surface, that is, in the region where the wave function for n = 1 and the same value of l is large, and a large value in the region just beyond this surface. 

The close-packed-spheron theory8 incorporates some of the features of the shell model, the alpha-particle model, and the liquid-drop model. Nuclei are considered to be close-packed aggregates of spherons (helicons, tritons, and dineutrons), arranged in spherical or ellipsoidal layers, which are called the mantle, the outer core, and the inner core. The assignment of spherons, and hence nucleons, to the layers is made in a straightforward way on... 

I assume that in nuclei the nucleons may. as a first approximation, he described as occupying localized 1. orbitals to form small clusters. These small clusters, called spherons. arc usually hclions, tritons, and dincutrons in nuclei containing an odd number of neutrons, an Hc i cluster or a deuteron may serve as a spheron. The localized l.v orbitals may be described as hybrids of the central-field orbitals of the shell model. 

The close-packed-spheron theory of nuclear structure may be described as a refinement of the shell model and the liquid-drop model in which the geometric consequences of the effectively constant volumes of nucleons (aggregated into spherons) are taken into consideration. The spherons are assigned to concentric layers (mantle, outer core, inner core, innermost core) with use of a packing equation (Eq. I), and the assignment is related to the principal quantum number of the shell model. The theory has been applied in the discussion of the sequence of subsubshells, magic numbers, the proton-neutron ratio, prolate deformation of nuclei, and symmetric and asymmetric fission. 

For two and three dimensions, it provides a crude but useful picture for electronic states on surfaces or in crystals, respectively. Free motion within a spherical volume gives rise to eigenfunctions that are used in nuclear physics to describe the motions of neutrons and protons in nuclei. In the so-called shell model of nuclei, the neutrons and protons fill separate s, p, d, etc orbitals with each type of nucleon forced to obey the Pauli principle. These orbitals are not the same in their radial shapes as the s, p, d, etc orbitals of atoms because, in atoms, there is an additional radial potential V(r) = -Ze2/r present. However, their angular shapes are the same as in atomic structure because, in both cases, the potential is independent of 0 and (f>. This same spherical box model has been used to describe the orbitals of valence electrons in clusters of mono-valent metal atoms such as Csn, Cu , Na and their positive and negative ions. Because of the metallic nature of these species, their valence electrons are sufficiently delocalized to render this simple model rather effective (see T. P. Martin, T. Bergmann, H. Gohlich, and T. Lange, J. Phys. Chem. 95, 6421 (1991)). 

These are derived frum a. lensui force resulting from a coupling between individual pairs of nucleons and from the coupling between spin and orbital angular moments of the individual nucleus, as described by the shell model of the nucleus. 

Quantum Number (Orbital). A quantum number characterizing the orbital angular momentum of an electron in an atom or of a nucleon in the shell-model description of the atomic nucleus. The symbol for the orbital quantum number is l. 

Figure 6.3 Energy level pattern and spectroscopic labeling of states from the schematic shell model. The angular momentum coupling is indicated at the left side and the numbers of nucleons needed to fill each orbital and each shell are shown on the right side. From M. G. Mayer and J. H. D. Jenson, Elementery Theory of Nuclear Shell Structure, Wiley, New York, 1955.

As we have seen, the nucleons reside in well-defined orbitals in the nucleus that can be understood in a relatively simple quantum mechanical model, the shell model. In this model, the properties of the nucleus are dominated by the wave functions of the one or two unpaired nucleons. Notice that the bulk of the nucleons, which may even number in the hundreds, only contribute to the overall central potential. These core nucleons cannot be ignored in reality and they give rise to large-scale, macroscopic behavior of the nucleus that is very different from the behavior of single particles. There are two important collective motions of the nucleus that we have already mentioned that we should address collective or overall rotation of deformed nuclei and vibrations of the nuclear shape about a spherical ground-state shape. 

The correlation of nuclear stability with special numbers of nucleons is reminiscent of the correlation of chemical stability with special numbers of electrons— the octet rule discussed in Section 6.12. In fact, a shell model of nuclear structure has been proposed, analogous to the shell model of electronic structure. The magic numbers of nucleons correspond to filled nuclear-shell configurations, although the details are relatively complex. 

Working in the fermion space, even in a considerably reduced shell model space like the S-D subspace, is quite complicated if nucleons are supposed to move in many j-orbits. In recent calculations performed in truncated shell model spaces, for nucleons in a single j-orbit (CAT85), a computational procedure has been set up to evaluate overlaps and matrix elements. The procedure has used recursion formulas which have been... 

Basing on the nuclear shell-model and concentrating on the monopole,pairing and quadrupole corrections originating from the nucleon-nucleon force,both the appearance of low-lying 0+ intruder states near major closed shell (Z=50, 82)and sub-shell regions (Z=40,64) can be described.Moreover,a number of new facets related to the study of intruder states are presented. 

These results demonstrate that a difference of only one neutron causes a considerable change of the nature of the nuclei at A 100 and that the study of the isotopes with odd nucleon numbers can provide insight into the details of the shape transition. The transition in the Y isotopes seems to be even more rapid than in the Sr and Zr chains where the N = 60 isotones still have coexisting shapes and where the shell-model character of the N 58 isotones at high excitation energies has not yet been tested.Further investigations are, however, needed in order to confirm in detail the proposed interpretation of the level schemes of the Y isotopes and to see whether similarly rapid structure changes occur in the Rb and Nb isotopes at N 60. 

In this picture, the excitation of nucleons into shell-model intruder states leads to the coexistence of states with different deformations. Shell-model intruder states for the odd-mass Au isotopes, for example, are presented in fig. 2. Note that the h9 2 and i13y2 intruders drop rapidly as one goes more neutron deficient [ZGA80]. 

Element abundance data were useful not only in astrophysics and cosmology but also in the attempts to understand the structure of the atomic nucleus. [74] As mentioned, this line of reasoning was adopted by Harkins as early as 1917, of course based on a highly inadequate picture of the nucleus. It was only after 1932, with the discovery of the neutron as a nuclear component, that it was realized that not only is the atomic mass number related to isotopic abundance, but so are the proton and neutron numbers individually. Cosmochemical data played an important part in the development of the shell model, first proposed by Walter Elsasser and Kurt Guggenheimer in 1933-34 but only turned into a precise quantitative theory in the late 1940s. [75] Guggenheimer, a physical chemist, used isotopic abundance data as evidence of closed nuclear shells with nucleon numbers 50 and 82. 

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