Abstract. The role David Rowe played in advancing our understanding of nuclear structure has been pivotal to modernizing the theory into one that does not require the use of an effective charge concept, and one that is extensible across the chart of the nuclides. We briefly review how this flows from the early history of the field, focusing especially on David's role in helping to bridge the divide between single-particle models and collective models of nuclear structure, and how this has led to the development of a beautiful and bold algebraic framework that underpins a theory of choice for future nuclear structure studies.
Looking forward, David Rowe's work also underpins current follow-on efforts focused on paving the way for the construction of yet another bridge, one that should help to span the chasm between low-energy and high-energy nuclear physics. If successful, the latter could ultimately lead to a truly ab initio framework for gaining a far broader understanding of nuclear structure, one that tracks forward from the fundamental structure of hadrons, especially protons and neutrons, and how they in turn conspire to give us atomic nuclei that in reality are the building blocks of the universe in which we live.

doi: https://doi.org/10.55318/bgjp.2022.49.1.005

Full-text: PDF