2000/05/31 by F. Barranco, R. A. Broglia, P. F. Bortignon +4 · 3 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Atomic physics #Biology #Cooper pair #Electron #Halo #Halo nucleus #Instability #Momentum (technical analysis) #Neutron #Nuclear physics #Nuclear physics research studies #Nucleus #Pauli exclusion principle #Physics #Physics of Superconductivity and Magnetism #Quantum mechanics #Quantum, superfluid, helium dynamics #Wave function #nucl-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.1007/s100500170050
16 pages, 1 b/w figures, 2 colour figures
arxiv created 2000/06/23 · openalex publication_date 2001/10/01 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
If neutrons are progressively added to a normal nucleus, the Pauli principle forces them into states of higher momentum. When the core becomes neutron-saturated, the nucleus expels most of the wavefunction of the last neutrons outside to form a halo, which because of its large size can have lower momentum. It is an open question how nature stabilizes such a fragile system and provides the glue needed to bind the halo neutrons to the core. Here we show that this problem is similar to that of the instability of the normal state of an electron system at zero temperature solved by Cooper, solution which is at the basis of BCS theory of superconductivity. By mimicking this approach using, aside from the bare nucleon-nucleon interaction, the long wavelength vibrations of the nucleus 11Li, the paradigm of halo nuclei, as tailored glues of the least bound neutrons, we are able to obtain a unified and quantitative picture of the observed properties of 11Li.