The isoscalar monopole excitation of 4He is studied within a few-body ab initio approach. We consider the transition density to the low-lying and narrow 0+ resonance, as well as various sum rules and the strength energy distribution itself at different momentum transfers q. Realistic nuclear forces of chiral and phenomenological nature are employed. Various indications for a collective breathing mode are found: i) the specific shape of the transition density, ii) the high degree of exhaustion of the non-energy-weighted sum rule at low q and iii) the complete dominance of the resonance peak in the excitation spectrum. For the incompressibility K of the alpha-particle values between 20 and 30 MeV are found.
In this contribution we review and clarify the arguments which might allow the interpretation of the isoscalar monopole resonance of $^4$He as a collective breathing mode.
The fragmentation of quasi-projectiles from the nuclear reaction $^{40}Ca$+$^{12}C$ at 25 MeV/nucleon was used to produce excited states candidates to $alpha$-particle condensation. The methodology relies on high granularity 4$pi$ detection coupled to correlation function techniques. Under the assumption that the equality among the kinetic energies of the emitted $alpha$-particles and the emission simultaneity constitutes a reliable fingerprint of $alpha$ condensation, we identify several tens of events corresponding to the deexcitation of the Hoyle state of $^{12}$C which fulfill the condition.
The first excited state in neutron-rich 23O was observed in a (2p1n) knock-out reaction from 26Ne on a beryllium target at a beam energy of 86 MeV/A. The state is unbound with respect to neutron emission and was reconstructed from the invariant mass from the 22O fragment and the neutron. It is unbound by 45(2) keV corresponding to an excitation energy of 2.8(1) MeV. The non-observation of further resonances implies a predominantly direct reaction mechanism of the employed three-nucleon-removal reaction which suggests the assignment of the observed resonance to be the 5/2+ hole state.
A study of the energies of the first excited $0^+$ states in all even-even $Z$ $geq$ 8 nuclei reveals an anomalous behavior in some nuclei with $N$ = $Z$, $Z$ $pm$ 2. We analyze these irregularities in the framework of the shell model. It is shown that proton-neutron correlations play an important role in this phenomenon.
All the time since its discovery the N$^*$(1440) baryon state, commonly known as Roper resonance, has been a state with many question marks - despite of its 4-star ranking in the particle data book. One reason is that it does not produce any explicit resonance-like structures in the observables of $pi$N or $gamma$N reactions. Only in partial wave analyses of $pi$N scattering data a clear resonance strcuture gets obvious in the $P_{11}$ partial wave. Very recent measurements of the J/$Psi$ decay by the BES collaboration and of the $pp to nppi^+$ reaction at 1.3 GeV by the CELSIUS-WASA collaboration show for the first time a clear resonance structure in the invariant $npi^+$ mass spectrum for the Roper resonance at M $approx$ 1360 MeV with a width of about 150 MeV. These values agree very favorably with the pole position results of recent $pi$N phase shift analyses. In consequence of this very low-lying pole postion, which is roughly 100 MeV below the nominal value, the decay properties have to be reinvestigated. From our two-pion production data we see that the decay mainly proceeds via N$^* to $N$sigma$, i.e. a monopole transition as expected for the breathing mode of the nucleon.