Speaker
Dr
Thomas Nilsson
(Chalmers University of technology and TU Darmstadt)
Description
Our picture of the structure of nuclei is undergoing dramatic changes when systems
far away from the line of stability are studied. Established landmarks in the
nuclear landscape like the magic numbers are weakened or displaced, and the nuclear
spin-orbit interaction appears to diminish. In the most extreme nuclear systems that
can be experimentally studied today, various types of exotic clustering become
evident when approaching the drip-lines. Major theoretical efforts are undertaken to
understand these nuclei, which partially lie in a domain gradually coming within
reach of ab-initio calculations.
Low-energy nuclear reactions constitute an excellent tool for studying these
phenomena. The beams from REX-ISOLDE permit few-nucleon transfer experiments in
inverse kinematics using an unprecedented range of radioactive species. These
reactions are well-proven close to stability with a long-standing knowledge how to
disentangle detailed nuclear structure information from the reaction mechanism. This
constitutes the starting point when approaching the driplines, with the additional
complexity of loosely bound states and/or coupling to the continuum.
REX-ISOLDE is, and will be playing a major role in increasing our experimental
knowledge of nuclei in the vicinity of the driplines. The first-generation
experiments have only started to show the potential of the device with its
associated detector systems and a rich scientific output can be envisaged for the
future.
Primary author
Dr
Thomas Nilsson
(Chalmers University of technology and TU Darmstadt)
