FIFTY YEARS OF NUCLEAR BCS: PAIRING IN FINITE SYSTEMS

This unique volume reviews more than fifty years of theoretical and experimental developments of the concept that properties of atomic nuclei up to a great extent are defined by the pair correlations of nuclear constituents — protons and neutrons. Such correlations in condensed matter are responsible for quantum phenomena on a macroscopic level — superfluidity and superconductivity. After introducing Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) theory of superconductivity of metals, it became clear that...