Metal Clusters and Atomic Nuclei

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It is not obvious that metal clusters should behave like atomic nuclei — but they do. Of course the energy and distance scales are quite different. But aside from this, the properties of these two forms of condensed matter are amazingly similar. The shell model developed by nuclear physicists describes very nicely the electronic properties of alkali metal clusters. The giant dipole resonances in the excitation spectra of nuclei have their analogue in the plasmon resonances of metal clusters. Finally, the droplet model describing the fission of unstable nuclei can be successively applied to the fragmentation of highly charged metal clusters. The similarity between clusters and nuclei is not accidental. Both systems consist of fermions moving, nearly freely, in a confined space.