AbstractsPhysics

A study of selected properties of stable nuclei reveals the existence of certain nuclei containing 'magic' numbers of neutrons and protons. These nuclei are characterized by high stability, large numbers of isotopes, abundance and small quadrupole moments. It is well known that the shell theory of nuclear structure, which asserts that there exists an average nuclear potential acting on the nucleon as it moves in the nucleus, can account for these magic numbers and for the ground state spins of most nuclei if a strong spin-orbit coupling is introduced empirically into the nuclear Hamiltonian. [...]