Nuclear moments as a test of shell-model and collective model descriptions of the nucleus

The distribution of electric and magnetic charges and currents in the atomic nucleus can be used to probe various nuclear structure aspects. We discuss, in particular, magnetic dipole and electric quadrupole moments as well as nuclear radii starting from shell-model and collective model approaches. We give attention to the relation between the free electromagnetic coupling strenghts (e_p, e_n, g_l, g_s) and the corresponding renormalized quantities and to the way in which polarization properties depend on the nuclear model space chosen. The above points are largely illustrated with recent experimental data on these various static moments (μ, Q, 2>). At the same time, the limits of applicability of the various model calculations in extracting preclse nuclear structure information from the above data are discussed.