The Shapes of Nuclei

Abstract

The nucleus behaves like a liquid drop as the mass formula and the saturation of density imply. However, a significant difference from the classical liquid drop, which is always spherical in order to make the energy by surface tension minimum, is that many nuclei are deformed except for those near the closed shells. The shape of nuclei is one of the central research subjects of nuclear structure together with the size of nuclei. The shape of nuclei is intimately related to the collective excitations of nuclei, and also strongly affects nuclear reactions including heavy-ionHeavy-ion fusion reactionsfusion reactions (see Balantekin and Takigawa, Rev. Mod. Phys. 70, 77 (1998); Dasgupta et al., Annu. Rev. Nucl. Part. Sci. 48, 401 (1998); Hagino et al., Comput. Phys. Commun. 123, 143 (1999); Esbensen, Nucl. Phys. A 352, 147 (1981); Hagino and Takigawa, Butsuri 57, 588 (2002); Hagino and Takigawa, Prog. Theor. Phys. 128, 1001 (2012) [1--6]). In this chapter we describe several basic concepts concerning the shape of nuclei.