International Workshop "Shapes and Dynamics of Atomic Nuclei: Contemporary Aspects" (SDANCA-15), 8-10 October 2015, Sofia, Bulgaria

The International Workshop "Shapes and Dynamics of Atomic Nuclei: Contemporary Aspects" (SDANCA-15) was held in the Hotel of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS) in Sofia from 8-th to 10-th of October 2015. The Workshop was organized by the research group on "Models of complex deformed nuclei" in the Institute of Nuclear Research and Nuclear Energy (INRNE) in BAS with the financial support of the Bulgarian National Science Fund under contract No. DFNI-E02/6.


The aim of the Workshop was to summarize the contemporary aspects and to formulate in a concise form the open problems in the study of nuclear structure and dynamics in the presence of different kinds of shape deformations. The idea was to combine up-to-date theoretical and experimental knowledge on the subject and to outline a common study direction focused on the search for and description of new shape phenomena and their effect on nuclear structure and stability in different mass regions. A major practical aim of the Workshop was to connect scientists with mutually complementary expertise and to inspire possible new collaborations on the subject of complex nuclear deformations.

The SDANCA-15 Workshop covered the following main topics:
- Collective and microscopic models for nuclear deformations;
- Shapes and symmetries - geometric and algebraic aspects;
- Coexisting shapes and shape-phase transition phenomena;
- Exotic shapes;
- Shapes and dynamics at the limits of stability;
- New data on nuclear deformations and current experimental techniques;
- Interdisciplinary aspects: links to shape phenomena in other physical systems.

The Workshop was attended by 43 registered participants from 14 countries: China, France, Germany, Greece, India, Israel, Japan, Poland, Romania, Russia, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States and Bulgaria. Additionally more than 10 not-registered colleagues from INRNE were also interested and have attended the presentations. The scientific program contained in total 34 talks. It was organized in two morning and two afternoon sessions each day. Each couple of sessions was followed by 30 minutes discussion lead by a convener. This was indeed a successful organization "experiment" since the discussions appeared to be really inspiring with many additional questions being raised and disputed. Though the program was dominated by theoretical presentations we had 9 talks on experimental achievements, all of them given in perfect conjunction with the theoretical approaches to the study of nuclear shape deformations and shape transitions. We have seen the latest results from microscopic approaches such as density functional theory, many-body/time-dependent/self-consistent theories, shell-model-based developments, group-theoretical (algebraic) models exploring different kinds of symmetries (partial-dynamical, unitary, symplectic, discrete, etc.) associated with shape-deformations and transitions, shell effects, pairing and multipole interactions, complex deformations etc. Also, we saw latest results from collective models including Bohr-type Hamiltonians either with deformation-dependent masses or with specific assumptions allowing separation of deformation variables, as well as approaches exploring cluster effects or more complicated deformation modes. Both theoretical and experimental talks were focused (though from different aspects) on the same actively investigated problems, such as the origin of deformations in the different regions of the nuclear chart, the coexistence and/or transition between shapes, shape effects on pairing, stability, fission ability, isomeric and decay properties of nuclei (touching interdisiplinary aspects such as atomic and laser physics studies), the role of shapes in N~Z nuclei, superheavy nuclei and nuclei in other less studied regions in the Segré chart, binding energies and other nuclear characteristics. These aspects were nicely complemented by descriptions of very promising new and/or future experimental techniques which should allow better precision to be reached in the measurements, including shorter life-times, higher efficiency of laser systems for nuclear structure studies, and hopefully more reliable data providing deeper insight into nuclear structure, shapes and the related dynamics.

The SDANCA-15 Workshop contribution papers are published in the Bulgarian Journal of Physics, vol. 42, number 4 (2015), after passing a full refereeing procedure. The files of the SDANCA-15 presentations (in pdf or ppt format), can be downloaded from the PROGRAMME page of the present site (click "SLIDES" after the title).

The presentations given, the discussions and the scientific atmosphere as well as the proceedings volume represent a really encouraging result. This will keep the SDANCA-15 organizers inspired and may stimulate them to possibly continue the Workshop in the future.

Nikolay Minkov

Workshop Photos

Second Announcement & Conference Poster

First Announcement

Important dates:


Registration through the Workshop registration form: 1-st of July 2015 (completed)
Submission of abstracts to the contact e-mail: 31-st of July 2015 (completed)
Submission of contribution manuscripts to contact e-mails: not later than 10-th of Oct 2015 (completed)

Note: a simplified version of the abstracts template is available here


Second Announcement (download):


Dear Colleagues,

On behalf of the Organizing Committee of SDANCA-15, I would like to thank all of you for accepting to attend the Workshop. Currently we have registered 45 participants and collected 35 abstracts for talks to be presented on the Workshop. You can see the list of participants on our web page: http://ntl.inrne.bas.bg/events/sdanca15/listp.php. Also there you can download the abstracts of the talks by clicking on the titles. Here we would like to announce the following details.

Travel schedules: In order to fix all reservations in the hotel of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences as well as to arrange the Workshop program considering any possible constraints we need information about your exact arrival and departure times. Therefore, we kindly ask those of you who have not yet sent us this information to do it as soon as possible. We believe that reaching the hotel from Sofia airport is quite convenient, as explained in the first announcement, so that you can arrange it easily. In case of special circumstances, late flights etc., you may let us know and we can arrange to help or advise you how to proceed.

Contributions submission: The Workshop contribution manuscripts will be published in the Bulgarian Journal of Physics (BJP). The BJP LaTeX style package is available on the journal web page http://www.bjp-bg.com/ together with the instructions for authors. It can be also downloaded from here. Note that it differs from the abstracts template. The following new details appear:

  • The BJP editors suggest to include the contributions into a regular December 2015 issue instead to produce a special issue (supplement).

  • To realize the above possibility, all manuscripts should pass a refereeing procedure organized by the Workshop chairman in co-operation with the BJP editors.

  • To meet the aim of 2015 publication we require that all manuscripts are submitted in a term starting by now and not later than the closing of the Workshop - 10-th of October. The refereeing of each manuscript and the subsequent communication with authors, including revisions, will be proceeded immediately after receiving the material without waiting the collection of all manuscripts.

  • Due to the large number of requested reports and to fit the standard BPJ volume size we have to impose a limitation of 10 pages (in the BPJ style) for each contribution manuscript.

  • The contribution files have to be sent with copies to the both contact addresses: Nikolay.Minkov@theo.physik.uni-giessen.de and nminkov@inrne.bas.bg. This is needed because of continuing problems with the latter (host institute) e-mail address. The files should include the LaTeX source and EPS figures (if available). Using ZIP or RAR archives is possible.

  • The above details apply for all contributions presented on the Workshop. For manuscripts submitted without attending the Workshop a decision will be made by the editors after the closing (10 Oct). If accepted they may be directed for publication in further BJP issues.

    • We shall provide you information about the program, fee payment details etc. in further communications.

    With kind regards,

    Nikolay Minkov
    Chairman of the SDANCA-15 Organizing Committee

    First Announcement (download):


    Description: The International Workshop "Shapes and Dynamics of Atomic Nuclei: Contemporary Aspects" (SDANCA-15) will be held in the Hotel of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS) in Sofia, Bulgaria between the 7-th (arrival day) and 11-th (departure day) of October 2015. The Workshop is organized by the research group on "Models of Complex Deformed Nuclei" in the Institute of Nuclear Research and Nuclear Energy (INRNE) in BAS with the financial support of the Bulgarian National Science Fund under contract No. DFNI-E02/6

    Aim: The aim of the Workshop is to summarize the contemporary aspects and to formulate in a concise form the open problems in the study of nuclear structure and dynamics in the presence of different kinds of shape deformations. The idea is to combine up-to-date theoretical and experimental knowledge on the subject and to outline a common study direction focused on the search for and description of new shape phenomena and their effect on nuclear structure and stability in different mass regions. A major practical aim of the Workshop is to connect scientists with mutually complementary expertise and to inspire possible new collaborations on the subject of complex nuclear deformations.

    Main topics:

  • Collective and microscopic models for nuclear deformations;

  • Shapes and symmetries - geometric and algebraic aspects;

  • Coexisting shapes and shape-phase transition phenomena;

  • Exotic shapes;

  • Shapes and dynamics at the limits of stability;

  • New data on nuclear deformations and current experimental techniques;

  • Interdisciplinary aspects: links to shape phenomena in other physical systems.

    • Program: The program will start in the morning of 8-th of October (Thursday) and will end in the evening of 10-th of October (Saturday) 2015. We plan to schedule 25 - 30 min standard talks as well as possibly shorter 15 min reports depending on the number of participants. The sessions will be organized by topics and the session convenors will have the possibility to conduct a short common discussion at the end of each session. A final discussion session in a round-table format is considered for the last afternoon providing an opportunity to outline perspectives for further developments and joint projects.

    Publication: The Workshop contribution manuscripts will be published in a special issue of the Bulgarian Journal of Physics. Instructions for authors and the manuscript style package in LaTeX are available on the journal web page http://www.bjp-bg.com/. We shall invite all the speakers to provide the manuscripts during the Workshop in order to be able to publish them by the end of the year. There is no fixed length restriction, but we would expect regular article sizes for the contributions.

    Conference site: The Workshop program, accommodation and a full board service are arranged in the Hotel of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS) in Sofia, Shipchenski prohod Str. 50. WiFi internet connections are available and a multimedia projector will be provided for the presentations. The hotel is situated at 10 mins walking distance from Pliska Place, from where a 5 mins bus connection to the city center is available. Also, a tram line connection to downtown is available from a station in front of the hotel campus. The hotel web site is http://www.domnaucheniya.com/contacts/ (in Bulgarian only).

    Fee: The workshop fee covering 4 nights accommodation, full board for 3 days (8-10 Oct) including an official dinner on 9-th of October and breakfast on 11-th of October will be collected in cash in EURO at the registration in the Hotel. The fee will vary between 250 and 300 EUR depending on the room type. Single rooms, double rooms with possible single occupancy and apartments are available. For accompanying persons and students the fee will vary between 200 and 250 EUR. Invoices for the payments will be given by the hotel administration in Bulgarian currency according to the official exchange rate.

    Social events: The city of Sofia provides a rich variety of cultural events and entertainments. The organizers will be happy to help participants who would wish to visit any particular event or to make sightseeing.

    Access from the Airport: The BAS hotel can be easily reached from Sofia Airport through Pliska Place. Pliska Place can be reached from Terminal 2 of Sofia Airport by the public transportation bus line 84. The trip takes about 20-25 minutes. Tickets are available at the bus-stop and from the bus driver. The price of the ticket is 1 Lev (about 0.5 EUR) per passenger with each large piece of luggage paying an additional ticket at the same price. Alternatively a taxi can be used.

    Visa: Formal invitation letters for participants who need to apply for a visa can be sent by the Organizers if the required details are provided to the contact e-mail below.

    Registration for participation: Colleagues who wish to participate in the Workshop have to fill in the registration form available on the Workshop web page and notify us by e-mail by 1-st of July as well as to submit an abstract of their talk (up to 1 page in LaTeX, Template here) to the contact e-mail below by 31-st of July 2015.

    Contact: Nikolay Minkov
    Institute of Nuclear Research and
    Nuclear Energy, Tzarigrad Road 72
    1784 Sofia, Bulgaria
    Tel (office): + 359 2 979 56 37
    Fax: +359 2 975 3619
    E-mail 1: nminkov@inrne.bas.bg
    E-mail 2 (in the case of problem with E-mail 1):
    Nikolay.Minkov@theo.physik.uni-giessen.de