Interpretation of the B(E2) values at energies higher the first backbending indicates that the maximum boson of IBM has to increase with energy and spin.
The talk is intended to motivate the use of DA$Phi$NE--2 running at the $phi$ peak as an intense, clean source of low--momentum charged and neutral kaons. It covers a few open problems still unsolved after more than twenty--five years and the physics (some of it still novel) that could be learned only in this way. And, of course, the answer to the above question is {sl NO}.
We study the performance of self-consistent mean-field and beyond-mean-field approximations in shell-model valence spaces. In particular, Hartree-Fock-Bogolyubov, particle-number variation after projection and projected generator coordinate methods are applied to obtain ground-state and excitation energies for even-even and odd-even Calcium isotopes in the pf-shell. The standard (and non-trivial) KB3G nuclear effective interaction has been used. The comparison with the exact solutions -- provided by the full diagonalization of the Hamiltonian -- shows an outstanding agreement when particle-number and angular-momentum restorations are performed and both quadrupole and neutron-neutron pairing degrees of freedom are explicitly explored as collective coordinates.
The relation of the shell, collective and cluster models of the atomic nuclei is discussed from the viewpoint of symmetries. In the fifties the U(3) symmetry was found as their common part for a single shell problem. For multi major-shell excitations, considered here, the U(3)$otimes$U(3) dynamical symmetry turns out to be their intersection.
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.
For the Riemannian space, built from the collective coordinates used within nuclear models, an additional interaction with the metric is investigated, using the collective equivalent to Einsteins curvature scalar. The coupling strength is determined using a fit with the AME2003 ground state masses. An extended finite-range droplet model including curvature is introduced, which generates significant improvements for light nuclei and nuclei in the trans-fermium region.