An overview of the scientific contribution of Andrea Vitturi to nuclear physics

Abstract

We give an account of the main achievements of the scientific career of Andrea Vitturi so far, that have recently been discussed during the workshop "Theoretical Nuclear Physics in Padova" on the occasion of his retirement from full professor at the University of Padova. He has oftentimes been the driving force behind numerous contributions to nuclear structure and nuclear reactions that are here reviewed: giant resonances, pairing correlations, collective modes, algebraic models, inelastic excitations, electromagnetic response, break-up and transfer reactions, coupled-channel formalism, clustering, subbarrier fusion processes, etc. Among these topics several inspirational works and ideas can be found that we would like to highlight. PACS. PACS-key discribing text of that key -PACS-key discribing text of that keyThis manuscript serves two scopes. On one hand, it is an account of some of the topics discussed in the recent workshop "Theoretical Nuclear Physics in Padova: a meeting in honor of Prof. Andrea Vitturi"[1] that was held in Padova on May 20 and 21 2019 on occasion of his retirement. On the other, the organizers and participants felt the duty to summarize in this review paper his extensive scientific production, beyond what was discussed at the meeting, because it spans a broad range of topics in low energy nuclear physics, trying to highlight several fruitful ideas and to shed new light on some less known papers that most certainly deserve further recognition.

Applications of nuclear physics to a wider context: from molecules to stars passing through hypernuclei

“…The idea that nuclei exhibiting a more or less pronounced cluster structure are related to the electron screening comes from the observation that the list of nuclei with large discrepancies between the experimental and the theoretical (atomic physics models) values of the screening potentials contains exactly those nuclei for which a cluster structure has been proposed or identified (See Table I). If the effect is absent (or almost absent) in the first group of reactions involving Z=1 species, it becomes important for reaction involving 6,7 Li and Be that are known to possess cluster structures in their ground states. This phenomenon occurs in those nuclei where a sort of molecular bound state between two clusters is energetically favored with respect to a spherical shell-model configuration.…”

“…Not all nuclei have cluster states, nor cluster configurations, whenever they occur, necessarily take up to 100% probability, but when they are present, they significantly alter the dynamics of fusion reactions (and others such as breakup, radiative capture processes, etc. [6,7]).…”