SINGLE PARTICLE AND COLLECTIVE MOTION
Interweaving of single-particle motion and of collective vibrations, taking properly into account effective mass, vertex corrections and induced interaction processes, as the basis for a unified self-consistent description of nuclear structure.
NUCLEAR SUPERFLUIDITY
Induced pairing interaction arising from the exchange of collective surface vibrations among nucleons moving close to the Fermi energy, and its role, together with particle number fluctuations ( pairing vibrations ) in the phase transition superfluid to normal, as a function of angular momentum and
of temperature.
NUCLEAR MOTION IN HOT NUCLEI
Single-particle motion, giant resonances and rotations in highly excited, strongly rotating nuclei. Damping of the different degrees of freedom.
SUPERFLUIDITY IN NEUTRON STARS
The research has focused on the microscopic properties of dense (cold and hot) matter found in compact astrophysical objects (collapsing massive stars, neutron stars, pulsars), and on their macroscopic consequences (supernova explosions, cooling of neutron stars, pulsar glitches). More specifically, recently we have concentrated on the superfluidity properties of nucleons inside neutron stars. These theoretical results become crucial when interpreting the growing database of observed neutron star surface temperatures. Another intriguing result concerns the pinning energy of vortices
on the nuclear lattice in rotating superfluid neutron stars
GLITCHES
We plan to continue the promising investigations conducted so far. In particular, recent results from a quantum variational approach seem to confirm our semiclassical model for vortex pinning. We thus intend to perform a consistent quantum calculation using the Bogolioubov-De Gennes equations, that we have adapted to the case of rotations, to study the vorticous properties of the rotating neutron superfluid and the interactions between vortices and nuclear lattice. Should our semiclassical results be confirmed, the whole explanation of pulsar glitches will have to be carefully revisited
SUPERNOVA EXPLOSION
Regarding the gravitational collapse of massive stars, a recent Monte Carlo calculation has confirmed what we obtained some years ago for the temperature dependence of the nuclear symmetry energy in the presence of the exotic nuclei expected to appear under these density conditions. We want to further explore this issue, closely related to the neutronization processes in the collapsing core and thence to the subsequent supernova explosion. In particular, the possibility of producing heavy neutron rich exotic nuclei in heavy-ion facilities (e.g. the projected SPES at Legnaro) will allow to test the
theoretical approach and extrapolate it to the extreme conditions found in astrophysical environments.