# Theoretical nuclear physics

Theoretical nuclear physics is the development of models for describing the nucleus and the processes that occur within it. This includes understanding the shape of the nucleus, or why nuclei with certain numbers (so-called magic numbers) of protons or neutrons are more stable than others.

## Latest Research and Reviews

• Research |

### Nuclear moments of indium isotopes reveal abrupt change at magic number 82

Precision laser spectroscopy measurements of neutron-rich indium isotopes were performed to investigate the validity and identify limitations of theoretical descriptions of nuclei based on simple single-particle approaches.

• A. R. Vernon
• , R. F. Garcia Ruiz
•  & D. T. Yordanov
Nature 607, 260-265
• Research
| Open Access

### Constraining neutron-star matter with microscopic and macroscopic collisions

The physics of dense matter extracted from neutron star collision data is demonstrated to be consistent with information obtained from heavy-ion collisions, and analyses incorporating both data sources as well as information from nuclear theory provide new constraints for neutron star matter.

• Sabrina Huth
• , Peter T. H. Pang
•  & Chris Van Den Broeck
Nature 606, 276-280
• Research
| Open Access

### α-Clustering in atomic nuclei from first principles with statistical learning and the Hoyle state character

Alpha particles are considered the building blocks for some nuclei in alpha-clustering. Here the authors discuss quantum many-body simulations with nucleon-nucleon interaction to characterize the Hoyle state, the first excited 0+ state of the 12C nucleus, and find complexity in its alpha-clustering.

• T. Otsuka
• , T. Abe
•  & H. Ueno
• Research
| Open Access

### Event topology and global observables in heavy-ion collisions at the Large Hadron Collider

• Suraj Prasad
• , Neelkamal Mallick
•  & Sushanta Tripathy
• Research
| Open Access

### Study of nuclear modification factors of deuteron and anti-deuteron in Pb–Pb collisions at $$\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}} =2.76\,\hbox {TeV}$$

• Feng-Xian Liu
• , Zhi-Lei She
•  & Ben-Hao Sa
• Research |

### Precision mass measurement of lightweight self-conjugate nucleus 80Zr

High-precision mass measurements of exotic zirconium nuclei are reported, and reveal a double-shell closure for the deformed nucleus 80Zr, which is more strongly bound than previously thought.

• A. Hamaker
• , E. Leistenschneider
•  & I. T. Yandow
Nature Physics 17, 1408-1412

## News and Comment

• News & Views |

### No need to decide

To test the validity of theoretical models, the predictions they make must be compared with experimental data. Instead of choosing one model out of many to describe mass measurements of zirconium, Bayesian statistics allows the averaging of a variety of models.

• Alessandro Pastore
Nature Physics 17, 1283
• News & Views |

### Close to the edge

The tin isotope 100Sn is key to understanding nuclear stability, but little is known about its properties. Precision measurements of closely related indium isotopes have now pinned down its mass.

• Nunzio Itaco
Nature Physics 17, 1080-1081
• News & Views |

### Nucleon spins surprise

Recent measurements of observables related to proton and neutron spin properties at low energies are in disagreement with the available theoretical predictions, and continue to challenge nuclear experimentalists and theorists alike.

• Mohammad W. Ahmed
Nature Physics 17, 670-671
• News & Views |

### Knock-out interpretability

A detailed analysis of a nucleon-knockout experiment has put forward a methodological roadmap for overcoming ambiguities in the interpretation of the data — promising access to the nuclear wave functions in unstable nuclei.

• Jan Ryckebusch
Nature Physics 17, 667-668
• News & Views |

### The case of the exotic isotopes

With increasing neutron number, the size of a nucleus grows, subject to subtle effects that act as fingerprints of its internal structure. A fresh look at potassium calls for theory to decipher the details.

• Gianluca Colò
Nature Physics 17, 428-429
• News & Views |

### Contact between nucleons

The contact formalism describes short-range correlations, which play a crucial role in nuclear systems. Initially introduced for ultracold atoms, its generalization to the nuclear case was now validated by ab initio calculations.

• Michael Urban
Nature Physics 17, 294-295