The many-nucleon theory of nuclear collective structure and its macroscopic limits: an algebraic perspective

The nuclear collective models introduced by Bohr, Mottelson and Rainwater, together with the Mayer-Jensen shell model, have provided the central framework for the development of nuclear physics. This paper reviews the microscopic evolution of the collective models and their underlying foundations. In particular, it is shown that the Bohr-Mottelson models have expressions as macroscopic limits of microscopic models that have precisely defined expressions in many-nucleon quantum mechanics. Understanding collective models in this way is especially useful because it enables the analysis of nuclear properties in terms of them to be revisited and reassessed in the light of their microscopic foundations.