Some aspects of statistical theory in nuclear reactions

Abstract

At high enough energies it is apparent that the nucleus ought to be and is well described as a Fermi gas of independent particles. At lower energies the study of individual levels becomes possible and the prediction of their properties is in many cases possible from shell model studies. There is an energy region in which the statistical distribution only of levels is know and it is certainly different in its behaviour from that of an infinite Fermi gas. Whether the terms introduced to describe a finite Fermi gas instead of an infinite one are sufficient to overcome these discrepancies, and if not what sort of residual interactions must be postulated, has some bearing on the shell model calculations already mentioned. (First three paragraphs of introduction).