Healing and Foretelling Practices in Azerbaijan

On the Apsheron Peninsula of Azerbaijan, in particular in the so-called 'green belt', regarded by many as a stronghold of traditional Shi'i religiosity, including such small towns as Nardaran and Mashtaga near Baku, the concept of having the 'gift' (vorki) of healing and telling the future has remained part of popular belief. Vorki is obtained from S hi'i imams and other holy people by means of dreams

Collective Quadrupole Excitations in Transitional Nuclei

The generalized Bohr Hamiltonian was used to describe the low-lying collective excitations in even-even isotopes of Ru, Pd, Te, Ba and Nd. The Strutinsky collective potential and cranking inertial functions were obtained using the Nilsson potential. The effect of coupling with the pairing vibrations is taken into account approximately when determining the inertial functions. The calculation does not contain any free parameter

Point symmetries in the Hartree-Fock approach: Densities, shapes and currents

Three mutually perpendicular symmetry axes of the second order, inversion,and time reversal can be used to construct a double point group denoted byD2h(TD). Properties of this group are analyzed in relation to the symmetry andsymmetry-breaking effects within the mean-field (Hartree-Fock) theories, bothin even and odd fermion systems. We enumerate space symmetries of localone-body densities, and symmetries of electromagnetic moments, that appear whensome or all of the D2h(TD) elements represent self-consistent mean-fieldsymmetries

Breaking and restoring symmetries within the nuclear energy density functional method

We review the notion of symmetry breaking and restoration within the frame of nuclear energy density functional methods. We focus on key differences between wave-function- and energy-functional-based methods. In particular, we point to difficulties to formulate the restoration of symmetries within the energy functional framework. The problems tackled recently in connection with particle-number restoration serve as a baseline to the present discussion. Reaching out to angular-momentum restoration, we identify an exact mathematical property of the energy density $E^{LM}(\vec{R})$ that could be used to constrain energy density functional kernels. Consequently, we suggest possible routes towards a better formulation of symmetry restorations within energy density functional methods.Comment: 16 pages, 3 figures, contribution to the "Focus issue on Open Problems in Nuclear Structure", Journal of Physics