Pairing Interaction and Two-Nucleon Transfer Reactions

Soon after the formulation of BCS theory [1], it was recognized by Bohr, Mottelson, and Pines that the existence of an energy gap in the intrinsic excitation spectrum of deformed nuclei displayed a suggestive analogy with that observed in the electronic spectra of metallic superconductors and could, like this one, be described at profit in terms of correlated pairs [2]. Their paper represented the starting point of more than fifty years of experimental and theoretical BCS flavored studies of pairing in nuclei [3].