Reviews of Modern Physics ( IF 45.037 ) Pub Date :
Takaharu Otsuka, Alexandra Gade, Olivier Sorlin, Toshio Suzuki, and Yutaka Utsuno

We review how distinct features of exotic nuclei arise from characteristics of nuclear forces, with a focus on shell structure. Many of those features are not found in stable nuclei, and are related to an unbalanced proton/neutron ratio combined with unique characteristics of various components of nucleon-nucleon interactions, such as central, tensor, two-body spin-orbit and three-nucleon forces. The basics of the monopole interaction are reinvestigated starting from the definition for open-shell nuclei. We discuss how the evolution of shell structure, or shell evolution, occurs due to the monopole interactions of those forces. We survey, utilizing actual examples, the signatures of shell evolution in many experimental observables of low-energy nuclear physics. Those signatures suggest a massive shift of the magic paradigm'', which includes the appearance of new magic numbers, such as 16, 32, 34, {\it etc.}, the disappearance of traditional magic numbers, such as 8, 20, 28 {\it etc.}, and other substantial changes of the shell structure, in certain regions of the Segr\`e chart. This article reviews further how combined efforts by theoretical and experimental studies provide a comprehensive picture of exotic nuclei from the shell evolution up to their many-body consequences such as shape change/coexistence, mixing/merging of the shells, intruder bands, weak binding effects, {} We shall thus see the richness of the shell evolution in exotic nuclei and the resulting diversity of the physics of nuclei with wide unexplored frontiers.

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