Fast rotation of nuclei with extreme isospin in the vicinity of neutron and proton drip lines

TL;DR

This paper explores how collective rotation influences the stability and structure of very neutron-rich and proton-rich nuclei near drip lines, revealing new phenomena like giant proton halos and extended nuclear stability at high spins.

Contribution

It demonstrates that collective rotation can stabilize high-spin states and transform proton quasi-bound states into bound states, extending the nuclear landscape beyond the proton drip line.

Findings

Rotational states can become more stable with increasing spin.

Proton quasi-bound states can become bound at high spin due to rotation.

Giant proton halos can form in rotating nuclei.

Abstract

The analysis of the present understanding of collective rotation in very neutron-rich nuclei is presented. It is shown that collective rotation can lead to the increase of stability of rotational states with increasing spin. The detailed investigation of rotational excitations in very proton-rich nuclei confirms this conclusion and indicate that experimental studies of such features are more feasible in the nuclei near proton drip line. They also show that rotational bands which are proton quasi-bound at zero or low spins can be transformed into proton bound ones at high spin by collective rotation of nuclear systems. This is due to strong Coriolis interaction which acts on high-$j$ or strongly mixed M orbitals and drives the highest in energy occupied single-particle states into negative energy domain. These physical mechanisms lead to a substantial extension of the nuclear landscape beyond the spin zero proton drip line. In addition, a new phenomenon of the formation of giant proton halos in rotating nuclei emerges: it is triggered by the occupation of strongly mixed M intruder orbitals.