This is NOT what the nucleus is doing. |
Rotational spectra are insanely complex and properly the study of so-called “nuclear chemistry.” We will not say much about the details. |
Deformed nuclei occupy the regions of “half-filled” shells, in other words the regions around halfway between “magic numbers.” |
The Dy isotopes offer a gorgeous example of rotational symmetry breaking... as more and more pairs of neutrons are added, the spectrum shifts from pure vibrational to pure rotational!
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For low-lying states, the extracted rotational inertia for deformed nuclei is neither that of a rigid ellipsoid, nor that of an “irrotational” superfluid, but about halfway between. The importance of pairing in nuclear matter makes the nucleus very much like a superfluid or superconductor, in general, however. Drastic things happen to the rotational bands when the excitation is great enough to break a significant number of pairs.
Sabine Hossenfelder, famous for her weekly YouTube series Science Without the Gobbledygook, was one of Greiner's graduate students.