a).Do atomic nuclei have natural angular frequencies? b).What would be the external force to drive the oscillator(atomic nucleus)?
1 Answer
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Nuclei, like molecules, have vibrational states, but the vibrational character of these states is not as pure for nuclei. You can model them as shape oscillations (usually ellipsoidal deformations about a spherical or ellipsoidal equilibrium shape), but in reality they're usually more like a slightly coherent superposition of a few different particle-hole excitations.
Some nuclei have spherical equilibrium shapes in their ground state, while others are ellipsoidal. The ellipsoidal ones can exhibit collective rotation about any principal axis that isn't a symmetry axis.
Nuclei can be excited by a variety of methods, but most of these usually do not excite any specific resonance in the sense of applying a driving force at a certain frequency. The best example I know of of what you're asking about with respect to induced fission through a vibrational resonance is that this can occur for neutron-induced fission in the actinides, and sometimes these resonances can be interpreted as vibrations that excite a state in a second superdeformed minimum of the potential.
