Nuclear masses: evidence of order-chaos coexistence

Oriol Bohigas ¹, Patricio Leboeuf ¹

Physical Review Letters 88 (2002) 092502

Shell corrections are important in the determination of nuclear ground-state masses and shapes. Although general arguments favor a regular single-particle dynamics, symmetry-breaking and the presence of chaotic layers cannot be excluded. The latter provide a natural framework that explains the observed differences between experimental and computed masses.

• 1. Laboratoire de Physique Théorique et Modèles Statistiques (LPTMS),
  CNRS : UMR8626 – Université Paris XI – Paris Sud