Role of symmetries in nuclear physics

We briefly describe the motivation for the special issue on ’Role of symmetries in Nuclear Physics’. In addition, we also present an overview of the topics covered in this special issue

Random k-Body Ensembles for Chaos and Thermalization in Isolated Systems

Embedded ensembles or random matrix ensembles generated by k-body interactions acting in many-particle spaces are now well established to be paradigmatic models for many-body chaos and thermalization in isolated finite quantum (fermion or boson) systems. In this article, briefly discussed are (i) various embedded ensembles with Lie algebraic symmetries for fermion and boson systems and their extensions (for Majorana fermions, with point group symmetries etc.); (ii) results generated by these ensembles for various aspects of chaos, thermalization and statistical relaxation, including the role of q-hermite polynomials in k-body ensembles; and (iii) analyses of numerical and experimental data for level fluctuations for trapped boson systems and results for statistical relaxation and decoherence in these systems with close relations to results from embedded ensembles