Nuclear Seminar

Experimental Tests of Chaos in Nuclei

Dr. Gary E. Mitchell
North Carolina State University, Raleigh
TUNL, Durham, North Carolina

Monday, October 9, 2006   4:00 p.m.   NSH 124
(Refreshments served prior to seminar in NSH 124)

 

Statistical distributions of spacing distributions and width distributions are used as signatures of chaos or regularity in nuclei.  Predictions of random matrix theory are reviewed and the experimental evidence surveyed.  The focus is on level statistics (spacing distributions - e.g., Wigner surmise) and on width distributions (Porter-Thomas distribution).  More recent efforts have established the effect of symmetry breaking on the spacing and width distributions.