Lasers in nuclear physics --A review

Lasers have played an important role for the development of new spectroscopy techniques yielding spins, electromagnetic moments and charge radii of many unstable nuclei. More recently, similar techniques have been introduced to manipulate atoms and thus to prepare beams or samples of radioactive atoms for various applications including nuclear spectroscopy and decay studies. Received: 21 March 2002 / Accepted: 16 May 2002 / Published online: 31 October 2002 RID="a" ID="a"e-mail: rainer.neugart@uni-mainz.de     

New applications of atomic physics to the study of nuclear properties

The hyperfine interaction couples the atomic electrons and the nucleus, and because of this interaction, there is a fundamental link between the fields of atomic physics and nuclear physics. Of course, information flows in both directions through this link. This paper reviews in broad terms the previous applications of atomic physics methods to the study of nuclear properties and fundamental interactions, and then focuses on the possible applications of atom trapping methods to nuclear physics problems.Supported in part by the National Science Foundation.     

Double beta decay: A problem of particle, nuclear and atomic physics

A brief review of recent progress in the field of double beta decay is presented. Different aspects from particle, nuclear and atomic physics of both two-neutrino (2νββ) and neutrinoless (0νββ) modes of the double β decay are discussed. It is argued that the R-parity violating supersymmetry (SUSY) contributes to the 0νββ-decay predominantly via charged pion-exchange between decaying nucleons. Further, a problem of reliable determination of the 0νββ-decay nuclear matrix elements (NMEs) is addressed. It is manifested that the uncertainty associated with the calculation of the 0νββ-decay NMEs can be diminished by suitably chosen nuclear probes. A new possibility for the study of lepton number non-conservation is proposed, namely oscillations plus deexcitations of neutral atoms. A phenomenological analysis of this process leads to a resonant enhancement of the neutrinoless double electron capture, that has a Breit-Wigner form.     

Application of the nuclear liquid drop model to atomic and molecular physics problems

The liquid drop model is applied to describe some basic properties of atoms, homoatomic molecules, metallic clusters of atoms and fullerene molecules. Equilibrium atomic size, energy and polarizability of the atom are calculated. Collective modes of oscillations (dipole, quadrupole and monopole, or breathing, ones) are regarded. Electromagnetic radiation by an atom, passing through a barrier is studied. Equilibrium volume of a homoatomic molecule of two atoms, axes ratio, dissociation energy and the frequencies of the dipole oscillations are calculated. Models to describe some properties of clusters and fullerene molecules are proposed. The size of the metallic cluster, its energy and the frequency of dipole oscillations are calculated. The frequencies of the dipole and breathing mode oscillations of the fullerene molecules are obtained. The calculated frequency of the dipole oscillations was found to be in a rather good accord with the experimental one.     

Nuclear physics parallels in atomic cluster physics

This paper considers some examples of physical phenomena, manifesting themselves in electron scattering on atomic clusters, which are analogous with those known from nuclear physics. It is demonstrated that the electron diffraction plays an important role in the formation of both elastic and inelastic electron scattering cross sections. The essential role of the multipole plasmon excitations in the formation of electron energy loss spectra on clusters is elucidated. The main emphasis in the paper is laid on electron scattering on fullerenes and metal clusters, however, results are applicable to some extent to other types of clusters as well.     

The positronium atom as a benchmark for Rydberg excitation experiments in atomic physics

Positronium is a hydrogen-like pure leptonic atom that has gained great attention in basic physics for its role in antimatter studies, in quantum electrodynamics tests and in material science. Positronium spectroscopy is also an interesting research field, especially in the again unexplored region of Rydberg states, where motional effects turns out of overwhelming importance in determining the level structure, at variance with the usual Rydberg atomic spectroscopy. In this paper we present a simple theory of optical excitation of positronium high-n levels in strong magnetic fields, and determine the conditions for obtaining saturation of the transitions. It is shown that positronium atom can be an atomic physics benchmark for laser excitation experiments on Rydberg states in magnetic environments.     

Chaos in atomic physics

The influence of quantum chaos on small atomic systems is reviewed. It now seems clear that chaos in the usually understood sense (e.g. exponential sensitivity to perturbations) is not found in isolated quantum systems. However, there are phenomena which appear only when the corresponding classical system is chaotic. The stability of the classical dynamics, in other words whether it is regular or chaotic, has a profound effect on the character of the corresponding quantum spectrum and wavefunctions.     

Atoms in flight and the remarkable connections between atomic and hadronic physics

Atomic physics and hadron physics are both based on Yang Mills gauge theory; in fact, quantum electrodynamics can be regarded as the zero-color limit of quantum chromodynamics. I review a number of areas where the techniques of atomic physics provide important insight into the theory of hadrons in QCD. For example, the Dirac-Coulomb equation, which predicts the spectroscopy and structure of hydrogenic atoms, has an analog in hadron physics in the form of light-front relativistic equations of motion which give a remarkable first approximation to the spectroscopy, dynamics, and structure of light hadrons. The renormalization scale for the running coupling, which is unambiguously set in QED, leads to a method for setting the renormalization scale in QCD. The production of atoms in flight provides a method for computing the formation of hadrons at the amplitude level. Conversely, many techniques which have been developed for hadron physics, such as scaling laws, evolution equations, and light-front quantization have equal utility for atomic physics, especially in the relativistic domain. I also present a new perspective for understanding the contributions to the cosmological constant from QED and QCD.     

Impurity nuclear physics

Using a germanium-detector array for hypernuclear γ spectroscopy (Hyperball), we measured B(E2) of the ⁷ _ΛLi hypernucleus and observed a significant shrinkage of the ⁶Li core induced by a Λ-particle. In this way, nuclear properties can be drastically changed by introducing a Λ-particle, which can be investigated by high-resolution hypernuclear γ spectroscopy. In the future neutron-rich hypernuclei will also be studied, where interesting modifications of nuclear structure by a Λ-particle are expected. Received: 1 May 2001 / Accepted: 4 December 2001     

Integrated physics package of a chip-scale atomic clock

The physics package of a chip-scale atomic clock （CSAC） has been successfully realized by integrating vertical cavity surface emitting laser （VCSEL）, neutral density （ND） filter, λ/4 wave plate, 87Rb vapor cell, photodiode （PD）, and magnetic coil into a cuboid metal package with a volume of about 2.8 cm3. In this physics package, the critical component, 87Rb vapor cell, is batch-fabricated based on MEMS technology and in-situ chemical reaction method. Pt heater and thermistors are integrated in the physics package. A PTFE pillar is used to support the optical elements in the physics package, in order to reduce the power dissipation. The optical absorption spectrum of 87Rb D1 line and the microwave frequency correction signal are successfully observed while connecting the package with the servo circuit system. Using the above mentioned packaging solution, a CSAC with short-term frequency stability of about 7 × 10^-10τ-1/2 has been successfully achieved, which demonstrates that this physics package would become one promising solution for the CSAC.     

Strangeness nuclear physics

An overview of strangeness nuclear physics is given, focussing on spin dependent effects in Λ hypernuclei, on the ΛN → NN weak interaction in Λ hypernuclei, on the density dependence of the Σ nuclear potential and on double strangeness physics. A special emphasis is placed on the recent proposal to study experimentally Ξ⁻ atoms.     

Positronium interactions in atomic physics

The role of positronium in the investigation of fundamental aspects of atomic physics is discussed. The recently developed technique of timed positronium beam production and the characterisation of the beam constituents in the energy range 7–41 eV are outlined. Examples of positronium atoms as probes in atomic scattering interactions are given.