Bonner Prize Talk: Theoretical Perspectives on Nuclear Spectroscopy
Abstract
Nuclear structure physics has benefited enormously from the interplay between theory and experiment. In decades past, mean-field theory has been shown again and again to play a fundamental role, first for static properties and then for dynamics, in particular for the giant resonances. The successes of mean-field theory and its techniques in nuclear physics have, in fact, inspired their application to other fields. I will mention particular the real-time approach to excitations. In turn, we in nuclear physics can gain inspiration from other disciplines. Mean-field physics -- under another name, the "density functional" -- has revolutionized the relationship between theory and experiment in chemistry. We can hope for a similar qualitative advance in nuclear theory, but the strong nuclear correlations make our task more difficult. Still, I am encouraged that a better predictive theory can be found and will discuss systematic efforts now under way to move beyond the mean field.
- Publication:
-
APS April Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- May 2004
- Bibcode:
- 2004APS..APR.S2001B