nLab nucleus (physics)

Redirected from "atomic nuclei".

Contents

this entry is about the concept in physics. For other meanings see nucleus (disambiguation)

Context

Physics

Fields and quanta

fields and particles in particle physics

and in the standard model of particle physics:

force field gauge bosons

photon - electromagnetic field (abelian Yang-Mills field)
W, Z, B-boson - electroweak field (Yang-Mills field)
gluon - strong nuclear force (Yang-Mills field)
graviton - field of gravity
infraparticle

scalar bosons

Higgs boson, inflaton (scalar field)

matter field fermions (spinors, Dirac fields)

flavors of fundamental fermions in the standard model of particle physics:
generation of fermions	1st generation	2nd generation	3d generation
quarks ( $q$ )
up-type	up quark ( $u$ )	charm quark ( $c$ )	top quark ( $t$ )
down-type	down quark ( $d$ )	strange quark ( $s$ )	bottom quark ( $b$ )
leptons
charged	electron	muon	tauon
neutral	electron neutrino	muon neutrino	tau neutrino

bound states:
mesons	light mesons: pion ( $u d$ ) ρ-meson ( $u d$ ) ω-meson ( $u d$ ) f1-meson a1-meson	strange-mesons: ϕ-meson ( $s \bar s$ ), kaon, K-meson ( $u s$ , $d s$ ) eta-meson ( $u u + d d + s s$ ) charmed heavy mesons*: D-meson ( $u c$ , $d c$ , $s c$ ) J/ψ-meson ( $c \bar c$ )	bottom heavy mesons: B-meson ( $q b$ ) ϒ-meson ( $b \bar b$ )
baryons	nucleons: proton $(u u d)$ neutron $(u d d)$

(also: antiparticles)

effective particles

Goldstone bosons

hadrons (bound states of the above quarks)

meson
- scalar meson
  - σ-meson
  - pion
  - kaon
  - D-meson
  - B-meson
- vector meson
  - ω-meson
  - ρ-meson
  - f1-meson
  - a1-meson
  - b1-meson
  - h1-meson
  - K*-meson
- tensor meson
- quarkonium
  - charmonium
  - ϒ-meson
exotic meson
- XYZ meson
- tetraquark
baryon
- nucleon
  - proton
  - neutron
  - chemical element
    - carbon
    - nitrogen
- Lambda baryon
- pentaquark

solitons

in grand unified theory

minimally extended supersymmetric standard model

superpartners

bosinos:

gravitino - field of supergravity (Rarita-Schwinger field)
gaugino - super Yang-Mills field
gluino

sfermions:

squark

dark matter candidates

WIMP
axion

Exotica

auxiliary fields

Idea
Skyrmion models
Related concepts
References

Idea

In physics or chemistry (or quantum chemistry) an atomic nucleus – or just nucleus, for short – is a bound state of protons and neutrons. If this in turn is surrounded by a shell of electrons the result is an atom, with the nucleus at its core.

The study of nuclei is the topic of nuclear physics.

Skyrmion models

Candidate models for baryons and even some aspects of atomic nuclei are Skyrmions (Riska 93, Battye-Manton-Sutcliffe 10, Manton 16, Naya-Sutcliffe 18).

For instance various resonances of thethe carbon nucleus are modeled well by a Skyrmion with baryon number 12 (Lau-Manton 14):

graphics grabbed form Lau-Manton 14

For Skyrmion models of nuclei to match well to experiment, not just the pion field but also the heavier mesons need to be included in the construction. Including the rho meson gives good results for light nuclei (Naya-Sutcliffe 18)

graphics grabbed form Naya-Sutcliffe 18

Related concepts

References

On Skyrmion models for nucleons:

D. O. Riska, Baryons and nuclei as skyrmions, Czech J Phys (1993) 43: 449 (doi:10.1007/BF01589856)
Richard A. Battye, Nicholas Manton, Paul Sutcliffe, Skyrmions and Nuclei, pp. 3-39 (2010) (doi:10.1142/9789814280709_0001) in: Mannque Rho, Ismail Zahed (eds.) The Multifaceted Skyrmion, World Scientific 2016 (doi:10.1142/9710)
P.H.C. Lau, Nicholas Manton, States of Carbon-12 in the Skyrme Model, Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 232503 (2014) (arXiv:1408.6680)
Nicholas Manton, Skyrmions and Nuclei, talk at Brookhaven National Lab, November 2016 (pdf)
Carlos Naya, Paul Sutcliffe, Skyrmions and clustering in light nuclei, Phys. Rev. Lett. 121, 232002 (2018) (arXiv:1811.02064)
L. A. Ferreira, L. R. Livramento, A False Vacuum Skyrme Model for Nuclear Matter [arXiv:2106.13335]
Nicholas Manton, Skyrmions as Models for Nuclei, Ischia (2022) [pdf]

Textbook account:

Nicholas Manton, Skyrmions – A Theory of Nuclei, World Scientific (2022) [doi:10.1142/q0368]