The use of exactly-solvable Richardson-Gaudin (R-G) models to describe the physics of systems with strong pair correlations is reviewed. We begin with a brief discussion of Richardson's early work, which demonstrated the exact solvability of the pure pairing model, and then show how that work has evolved recently into a much richer class of exactly-solvable models. We then show how the Richardson solution leads naturally to an exact analogy between such quantum models and classical electrostatic problems in two dimensions. This is then used to demonstrate formally how BCS theory emerges as the large-N limit of the pure pairing Hamiltonian and is followed by several applications to problems of relevance to condensed matter physics, nuclear physics and the physics of confined systems. Some of the interesting effects that are discussed in the context of these exactly-solvable models include: (1) the crossover from superconductivity to a fluctuation-dominated regime in small metallic grains, (2) the role of the nucleon Pauli principle in suppressing the effects of high spin bosons in interacting boson models of nuclei, and (3) the possibility of fragmentation in confined boson systems. Interesting insight is also provided into the origin of the superconducting phase transition both in two-dimensional electronic systems and in atomic nuclei, based on the electrostatic image of the corresponding exactly-solvable quantum pairing models.2

An improved prescription for choosing a transformed harmonic oscillator (THO) basis for use in configuration-space Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov (HFB) calculations is presented. The new HFB+THO framework that follows accurately reproduces the results of coordinate-space HFB calculations for spherical nuclei, including those that are weakly bound. Furthermore, it is fully automated, facilitating its use in systematic investigations of large sets of nuclei throughout the periodic table. As a first application, we have carried out calculations using the Skyrme Force SLy4 and volume pairing, with exact particle number projection following application of the Lipkin-Nogami prescription. Calculations were performed for all even-even nuclei from the proton drip line to the neutron drip line having proton numbers Z = 2, 4, . . . , 108 and neutron numbers N = 2, 4, . . . , 188. We focus on nuclei near the neutron drip line and find that there exist numerous particle-bound even-even nuclei (i.e., nuclei with negative Fermi energies) that have at the same time negative two-neutron separation energies. This phenomenon, which was earlier noted for light nuclei, is attributed to bound shape isomers beyond the drip line.

We describe the elastic scattering of weakly interacting dark matter particles from nuclei, with laboratory detection in mind. We focus on the lightest neutralino (a neutral fermion predicted by supersymmetry) as a likely candidate and discuss the physics needed to calculate its elastic scattering cross section and interpret experimental results. Particular emphasis is placed on a proper description of the structure of the proposed detector nuclei. We include a brief discussion of expected count rates in some detectors.

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