Nuclear Physics Seminar

The nuclear chart is full of phenomena hitherto unexplained. Of the roughly estimated 7000 nuclear species to exist in nature, only about 10% are known and studied. Owing to the Coulomb barrier, most of these lie on the neutron rich side of the valley of stability. Halos are a special class of these exotic nuclei where one or two nucleons decouple from a composite core and penetrate the classically forbidden region. They are weakly bound nuclei, with the continuum playing a major role in their description. I discuss the three-body Borromean system 31F, which is the last known isotope of the Fluorine chain and has been deemed as a p-wave halo, using a pseudostate approach with a transformed harmonic oscillator (THO) basis. Similarly, 34Na, analyzed using the post form finite range distorted wave Born approximation (FRDWBA) theory is a vital p-wave halo like 31F, but is a one-neutron halo candidate whose formation rate is crucial to 35Na, the most abundant neutron rich isotope of the Sodium chain. With the same basis discretizing the intermediate continuum as 31F, I then discuss two-neutron transfer reactions with 6He as an ideal candidate to understand the reaction mechanism due to the pairing interactions in the final nucleus. I weigh up scattering of the Cooper pair of the nucleons via the different states of the intermediate continuum through comparisons with a hypothetical bound case of 5He. Extending the possibilities for astrophysical applications, reaction rates for radiative neutron capture (n,γ) reactions involving some of these exotic nuclei would also be discussed.