Preface
Every great and deep difficulty bears in itself its own solution.
It forces us to change our thinking in order to find it.
[Niels Bohr (1919)]
Atomic nucleus is a self-organized, many-body quantum system emerging from
complex interactions between quarks and gluons. At low energies, the nucleus is
seen as an aggregation of neutrons and protons held together by the short-range
nuclear force. The complexity of interactions, different regimes of binding energy,
and the large number of degrees of freedom make the computation of nuclear
properties from first principles exceedingly difficult. Nuclear properties are strongly
affected by coupling to the many-body continuum of scattering and decay channels.
In this context, resonance phenomena play a prominent role. A simultaneous
understanding of the structural and reaction aspects of nuclear many-body problem
in a unified framework is at the core of understanding of the short-lived nuclear
states.
Atomic nucleus is the excellent example of an open quantum system. The
complexity of discrete many-body states embedded in the continuum, and a strong
variation of both the effective interaction among nucleons and the nuclear spectra
with the excitation energy, makes the unitarity of the theoretical description of
atomic nucleus to the key theoretical issue.
This textbook is the first ever book on the open quantum system formulation
of the configuration interaction approach, the Gamow shell model, which provides
a unitary description of dynamics of the many-body system in different regimes
of binding energy. The book is intended for graduate students and experienced
researchers. The aim is to fill the gap between standard textbooks on quantum
many-body physics and nuclear theory, and the specialized articles on open quantum
systems in the context of nuclear physics, atomic physics, or nanoscience.
The course is accompanied by analytical exercises of varying difficulties. Several
numerical exercises make use of available computer programs, and there are
prepared input files as examples of different possible applications. The exercises
provided throughout the body text are linked to computations that can be found at
https://github.com/GSMUTNSR. At the end of each chapter, the solutions to the
exercises are discussed. In this way, this course or its parts can be used as basis for
v
Every great and deep difficulty bears in itself its own solution.
It forces us to change our thinking in order to find it.
[Niels Bohr (1919)]
Atomic nucleus is a self-organized, many-body quantum system emerging from
complex interactions between quarks and gluons. At low energies, the nucleus is
seen as an aggregation of neutrons and protons held together by the short-range
nuclear force. The complexity of interactions, different regimes of binding energy,
and the large number of degrees of freedom make the computation of nuclear
properties from first principles exceedingly difficult. Nuclear properties are strongly
affected by coupling to the many-body continuum of scattering and decay channels.
In this context, resonance phenomena play a prominent role. A simultaneous
understanding of the structural and reaction aspects of nuclear many-body problem
in a unified framework is at the core of understanding of the short-lived nuclear
states.
Atomic nucleus is the excellent example of an open quantum system. The
complexity of discrete many-body states embedded in the continuum, and a strong
variation of both the effective interaction among nucleons and the nuclear spectra
with the excitation energy, makes the unitarity of the theoretical description of
atomic nucleus to the key theoretical issue.
This textbook is the first ever book on the open quantum system formulation
of the configuration interaction approach, the Gamow shell model, which provides
a unitary description of dynamics of the many-body system in different regimes
of binding energy. The book is intended for graduate students and experienced
researchers. The aim is to fill the gap between standard textbooks on quantum
many-body physics and nuclear theory, and the specialized articles on open quantum
systems in the context of nuclear physics, atomic physics, or nanoscience.
The course is accompanied by analytical exercises of varying difficulties. Several
numerical exercises make use of available computer programs, and there are
prepared input files as examples of different possible applications. The exercises
provided throughout the body text are linked to computations that can be found at
https://github.com/GSMUTNSR. At the end of each chapter, the solutions to the
exercises are discussed. In this way, this course or its parts can be used as basis for
v