https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/i2016-16294-0
Review
Global properties of atomic nuclei
Masses, radii and modern methods to measure them
Experimental Physics Department, CERN, Geneva, Switzerland
* e-mail: kowalska@cern.ch
Received:
18
May
2016
Accepted:
16
July
2016
Published online:
31
August
2016
The global properties of atomic nuclei, namely their masses and radii, provide important input for the understanding of the nuclear interaction. The experimental methods addressing these nuclear properties have evolved a lot in the last 30 years. Many techniques have been refined and new ones have been developed, allowing to push the limits of sensitivity and precision. This, in turn, has given access to very short-lived nuclei and has helped to probe the strong force in the nuclear medium in much finer detail than before. This paper will summarise the general features of nuclear masses and radii, will describe briefly methods to measure these properties for stable isotopes, and will concentrate on state-of-the-art techniques devoted to their investigations in radionuclides.
© Società Italiana di Fisica and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, 2016
