This Resource Letter provides a guide to the literature on the spherical shell model as applied to nuclei. The nuclear shell model describes the structure of nuclei starting with a nuclear core developed by the classical neutron and proton magic numbers , where gaps occur in the single-particle energies as a shell is filled, and the interactions of valence nucleons that reside beyond that core. Various modern extensions of this model for spherical nuclei are likewise described. Significant extensions of the nuclear shell model include new magic numbers for spherical nuclei and now for deformed nuclei as well. When both protons and neutrons have shell gaps at the same spherical or deformed shapes, they can reinforce each other to give added stability to that shape and lead to new magic numbers. The vanishings of the classical spherical shell model energy gaps and magic numbers in new neutron-rich nuclei are described. Spherical and deformed shell gaps are seen to be critical for the existence of elements with .
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January 2011
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January 01 2011
Resource Letter NSM-1: New insights into the nuclear shell model
David J. Dean;
David J. Dean
Physics Division,
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831
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Joseph H. Hamilton
Joseph H. Hamilton
Department of Physics,
Vanderbilt University
, Nashville, Tennessee 37235
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Am. J. Phys. 79, 5–16 (2011)
Article history
Received:
May 29 2010
Accepted:
August 26 2010
Citation
David J. Dean, Joseph H. Hamilton; Resource Letter NSM-1: New insights into the nuclear shell model. Am. J. Phys. 1 January 2011; 79 (1): 5–16. https://doi.org/10.1119/1.3490013
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