Microscopic evaluation of the pairing gap

Abstract

We discuss the relevant progress that has been made in the last few years on the microscopic theory of the pairing correlation in nuclei and the open problems that still must be solved in order to reach a satisfactory description and understanding of the nuclear pairing. The similarities and differences with the nuclear matter case are emphasized and described by few illustrative examples. The comparison of calculations of different groups on the same set of nuclei show, besides agreements, also discrepancies that remain to be clarified. The role of the many-body correlations, like screening, that go beyond the BCS scheme, is still uncertain and requires further investigation.