Nuclear structure studies far east and out west on the nuclear chart

Abstract

The nuclear potential and resulting shell structure are well established for the valley of stability, however, dramatic modifications to the familiar ordering of single-particle orbitals in rare isotopes have been found: new shell gaps emerge, some conventional magic numbers are no longer valid, and theoretical models that extrapolate from stability to describe observables in exotic nuclei can fail. Current efforts in nuclear structure physics are aimed at unraveling the driving forces behind this structural evolution, which was found most dramatic in neutron-rich species. This manuscript will outline some of the recent efforts at NSCL aimed at shedding light on the evolution of nuclear structure around neutron number N = 40 in neutron-rich Ti isotopes and in neutron-deficient Sn nuclei approaching 100Sn.