A Relativistic Symmetry in Nuclei: Its origins and consequences

Abstract

We review the status of quasi-degenerate doublets in nuclei, called pseudospin doublets, which were discovered about thirty years ago and the origins of which have remained a mystery, until recently. We show that pseudospin doublets originate from an SU(2) symmetry of the Dirac Hamiltonian which occurs when the sum of the scalar and vector potentials is a constant. Furthermore, we survey the evidence that pseudospin symmetry is approximately conserved in nuclear spectra and eigenfunctions and in nucleon-nucleus scattering for a Dirac Hamiltonian with realistic nuclear scalar and vector potentials.