Exotic nuclei far from the stability line

The recent availability of radioactive beams has opened up a new era in nuclear physics. The interactions and structure of exotic nuclei close to the drip lines have been studied extensively world wide, and it has been revealed that unstable nuclei, having weakly bound nucleons, exhibit characteristic features such as a halo structure and a soft dipole excitation. We here review the developments of the physics of unstable nuclei in the past few decades. The topics discussed in this Chapter include the halo and skin structures, the Coulomb breakup, the dineutron correlation, the pair transfer reactions, the two-nucleon radioactivity, the appearance of new magic numbers, and the pygmy dipole resonances.Comment: 43 pages, 30 eps figures. chapter in "100 years of subatomic physics", edited by E.M. Henley and S. Elli

The proton and neutron distribution in Na isotopes: the development of halo and shell structure

The interaction cross sections for $^A Na + ^{12}C$ reaction are calculated using Glauber model. The continuum Hartree-Bogoliubov theory has been generalized to treat the odd particle system and take the continuum into account. The theory reproduces the experimental result quite well. The matter distributions from the proton drip line to the neutron drip line in Na isotopes have been systematically studied and presented. The relation between the shell effects and the halos has been examined. The tail of the matter distribution shows a strong dependence on the shell structure. The neutron N=28 closure shell fails to appear due to the coming down of the $2p_{3/2}$ and $2p_{1/2}$. The development of the halo was understood as changes in the occupation in the next shell or the sub-shell close to the continuum limit. The central proton density is found to be decreasing near the neutron drip line, which is due to the proton-neutron interaction. However the diffuseness of the proton density does not change for the whole Na isotopes.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure

The surface diffuseness and the spin-orbital splitting in relativistic continuum Hartree-Bogoliubov theory

The Relativistic Continuum Hartree Bogoliubov theory (RCHB), which is the extension of the Relativistic Mean Field and the Bogoliubov transformation in the coordinate representation, has been used to study tin isotopes. The pairing correlation is taken into account by a density-dependent force of zero range. RCHB is used to describe the even-even tin isotopes all the way from the proton drip line to the neutron drip line. The contribution of the continuum which is important for nuclei near the drip-line has been taken into account. The theoretical $S_{2n}$ as well as the neutron, proton, and matter $rms$ radii are presented and compared with the experimental values where they exist. The change of the potential surface with the neutron number has been investigated. The diffuseness of the potentials in tin isotopes is analyzed through the spin-orbital splitting in order to provide new way to understand the halo phenomena in exotic nuclei. The systematic of the isospin and energy dependence of these results are extracted and analyzed.Comment: 11 figure

Toward precision mass measurements of neutron-rich nuclei relevant to rr-process nucleosynthesis

The open question of where, when, and how the heavy elements beyond iron enrich our Universe has triggered a new era in nuclear physics studies.\ Of all the relevant nuclear physics inputs, the mass of very neutron-rich nuclides is a key quantity for revealing the origin of heavy elements beyond iron.\ Although the precise determination of this property is a great challenge, enormous progress has been made in recent decades, and it has contributed significantly to both nuclear structure and astrophysical nucleosynthesis studies.\ In this review, we first survey our present knowledge of the nuclear mass surface, emphasizing the importance of nuclear mass precision in $r$-process calculations.\ We then discuss recent progress in various methods of nuclear mass measurement with a few selected examples.\ For each method, we focus on recent breakthroughs and discuss possible ways of improving the weighing of $r$-process nuclides.Comment: 10 figures, review articles in Frontiers of Physic

Coulomb and nuclear breakup of three-body halo nuclei

We investigate dissociation reactions of loosely bound and spatially extended three-body systems. We formulate a practical method for simultaneous treatment of long-range Coulomb and short-range nuclear interactions. We use $^6$He (n+n+$\alpha$) and $^{11}$Li (n+n+$^{9}$Li) as examples and study the two-neutron separation cross sections as functions of target and beam energy. Individual Coulomb and nuclear as well as interference contributions are also extracted.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, 'epl.cls' style (also sent

Hyperfine Anomaly of Be Isotopes and Anomalous Large Anomaly in 11^{11}Be

A new result of investigations of the hyperfine structure (hfs) anomaly in Be isotopes is presented. The hfs constant for $^{11}$Be is obtained by using the core plus neutron type wave function: $|2s_{1\over 2}>+|1d_{5\over2}\times 2^+ ; {1/2}^{+}>$. A large hfs anomaly of $^{11}$Be is found, which is mainly due to a large radius of the halo single particle state.Comment: 14 pages, Late

Study of Proton Magic Even-Even Isotopes and Giant Halos of Ca Isotopes with Relativistic Continuum Hartree-Bogoliubov Theory

We study the proton magic O, Ca, Ni, Zr, Sn, and Pb isotope chains from the proton drip line to the neutron drip line with the relativistic continuum Hartree-Bogoliubov (RCHB) theory. Particulary, we study in detail the properties of even-even Ca isotopes due to the appearance of giant halos in neutron rich Ca nuclei near the neutron drip line. The RCHB theory is able to reproduce the experimental binding energies $E_b$ and two neutron separation energies $S_{2n}$ very well. The predicted neutron drip line nuclei are $^{28}$O, $^{72}$Ca, $^{98}$Ni, $^{136}$Zr, $^{176}$Sn, and $^{266}$Pb, respectively. Halo and giant halo properties predicted in Ca isotopes with $A>60$ are investigated in detail from the analysis of two neutron separation energies, nucleon density distributions, single particle energy levels, the occupation probabilities of energy levels including continuum states. The spin-orbit splitting and the diffuseness of nuclear potential in these Ca isotopes are studied also. Furthermore, we study the neighboring lighter isotopes in the drip line Ca region and find some possibility of giant halo nuclei in the Ne-Na-Mg drip line nuclei.Comment: 45 pages, 20 figure

Direct radiative capture of p-wave neutrons

The neutron direct radiative capture (DRC) process is investigated, highlighting the role of incident p-wave neutrons. A set of calculations is shown for the 12-C(n,gamma) process at incoming neutron energies up to 500 keV, a crucial region for astrophysics. The cross section for neutron capture leading to loosely bound s, p and d orbits of 13-C is well reproduced by the DRC model demonstrating the feasibility of using this reaction channel to study the properties of nuclear wave functions on and outside the nuclear surface. A sensitivity analysis of the results on the neutron-nucleus interaction is performed for incident s- as well as p-waves. It turned out that the DRC cross section for p-wave neutrons is insensitive to this interaction, contrary to the case of incident s-wave neutrons. PACS number(s): 25.40Lw,21.10Gv,23.40.HcComment: 16 pages, REVTeX file, PostScript file, .dvi fil

Molecular-orbital structure in neutron-rich C isotopes

The molecule-like structure of the C isotopes (A=12, 14, 16) is investigated using a microscopic $\alpha+\alpha+\alpha+n+n+\cdot \cdot \cdot$ model. The valence neutrons are classified based on the molecular-orbit (MO) model, and both $\pi$-orbit and $\sigma$-orbit are introduced around three $\alpha$-clusters. The valence neutrons which occupy the $\pi$-orbit increase the binding energy and stabilize the linear-chain of 3$\alpha$ against the breathing-like break-up. However, $^{14}$C with the $\pi$-orbit does not show clear energy minimum against the bending-like path. The combination of the valence neutrons in the $\pi$- and the $\sigma$-orbit is promising to stabilize the linear-chain state against the breathing- and bending- modes, and it is found that the excited states of $^{16}$C with the $(3/2^-_\pi)^2(1/2^-_\sigma)^2$ configuration for the four valence neutrons is one of the most promising candidates for such structure

The neutron halo of 6^6He in a microscopic model

The two--neutron separation energy of $^6$He has been reproduced for the first time in a realistic parameter--free microscopic multicluster model comprising the $\alpha +n+n$ and $t+t$ clusterizations, with $\alpha$ cluster breathing excitations included. The contribution of the $t+t$ channel is substantial. A very thick (0.85 fm) neutron halo has been found in full agreement with the results of the latest phenomenological analysis.Comment: Submitted to Phys. Rev. C, 8 pages, Latex with Revtex, 2 figures (not included) available on request, 08-03-9