A New Fundamental Duality in Nuclei and its Implications for Quantum Mechanics

TL;DR

This paper reveals a fundamental duality between Liquid Drop Models and Independent Particle Models in nuclear physics, suggesting both are equally basic and providing new insights into quantum mechanics and longstanding nuclear problems.

Contribution

It demonstrates that LDM and IPM are complementary dual descriptions of the nucleus, challenging the view that LDM is merely an effective model.

Findings

LDM is as fundamental as IPM for nuclear description

Provides a solution to the Coester Band problem

Introduces a duality analogous to wave-particle duality

Abstract

The Liquid Drop Models (LDM) and the Independent Particle Models (IPM) have been known to provide two conflicting pictures of the nucleus. The IPM being quantum mechanical, is believed to provide a fundamental picture of the nucleus and hence has been focus of the still elusive unified theory of the nucleus. It is believed that the LDM at best is an effective and limited model of the nucleus. Here, through a comprehensive study of one nucleon separation energy, we give convincing evidence that actually the LDM is as fundamental and as basic for the description of the nucleus as the IPM is. As such the LDM and the IPM provide simultaneously co-exiting complementary duality of the nuclear phenomena. This fundamental duality also provides solution to the decades old Coester Band problem in the nucleus. Similarity and differences with respect to the well known wave-particle duality, as envisaged in Bohr's Complementarity Principle, is pointed out. Thereafter implications of this new Duality in the nucleus for quantum mechanics is discussed.