Is there a connection between the branch point singularity at the particle emission threshold and the appearance of cluster states which reveal the structure of a corresponding reaction channel? Which nuclear states are most impacted by the coupling to the scattering continuum? What should be the most important steps in developing the theory that will truly unify nuclear structure and nuclear reactions? The common denominator of these questions is the continuum shell-model approach to bound and unbound nuclear states, nuclear decays, and reactions.
Several experiments [1-3] show significant deviations from predictions of the statistical model of nuclear reactions. We summarize unsuccessful recent theoretical efforts to account for such disagreement in terms of a violation of orthogonal invariance caused by the Thomas-Ehrman shift. We report on numerical simulations involving a large number of gamma decay channels that also give rise to violation of orthogonal invariance but likewise do not account for the discrepancies. We discuss the statistical model in the light of these results.
This contribution gives a short review of recent theoretical advances in most topics of nuclear cluster physics concentrating, however, around {$alpha$} particle clustering. Along the route, the point of view will be critical mentioning not only progress but also failures and open problems.
This article is a snap-shot of a web site, which has been collecting open problems in quantum information for several years, and documenting the progress made on these problems. By posting it we make the complete collection available in one printout. We also hope to draw more attention to this project, inviting every researcher in the field to raise to the challenges, but also to suggest new problems.
Three-body decay is a rare decay mode observed in a handful of unbound rare isotopes. The angular and energy correlations between emitted nucleons are of particular interest, as they provide invaluable information on the interplay between structure and reaction aspects of the nuclear open quantum system. To study the mechanism of two-nucleon emission, we developed a time-dependent approach that allows us to probe emitted nucleons at long times and large distances. We successfully benchmarked the new method against the Greens function approach and applied it to low-energy two-proton and two-neutron decays. In particular, we studied the interplay between initial-state nucleon-nucleon correlations and final-state interaction. We demonstrated that the time evolution of the two-nucleon wave function is strongly impacted by the diproton/dineutron dynamics and that the correlations between emitted nucleons provide invaluable information on the dinucleon structure in the initial-state.