Coulomb excitation is a technique in experimental nuclear physics to probe the electromagnetic aspect of
nuclear structure
Understanding the structure of the atomic nucleus is one of the central challenges in nuclear physics.
Models The liquid drop model
The liquid drop model is one of the first models of nuclear structure, proposed by Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcke ...
. In coulomb excitation, a
nucleus
Nucleus ( : nuclei) is a Latin word for the seed inside a fruit. It most often refers to:
*Atomic nucleus, the very dense central region of an atom
*Cell nucleus, a central organelle of a eukaryotic cell, containing most of the cell's DNA
Nucle ...
is excited by an
inelastic collision
An inelastic collision, in contrast to an elastic collision, is a collision in which kinetic energy is not conserved due to the action of internal friction.
In collisions of macroscopic bodies, some kinetic energy is turned into vibrational energ ...
with another nucleus through the
electromagnetic interaction
In physics, electromagnetism is an interaction that occurs between particles with electric charge. It is the second-strongest of the four fundamental interactions, after the strong force, and it is the dominant force in the interactions of ...
. In order to ensure that the interaction is electromagnetic in nature — and not nuclear — a "safe" scattering angle is chosen.
This method is particularly useful for investigating collectivity in nuclei, as collective excitations are often connected by
electric quadrupole
A quadrupole or quadrapole is one of a sequence of configurations of things like electric charge or current, or gravitational mass that can exist in ideal form, but it is usually just part of a multipole expansion of a more complex structure ref ...
transitions.
Atomic physics
Nuclear physics
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