International Workshop "Shapes and Dynamics of Atomic Nuclei: Contemporary Aspects" (SDANCA-19), 3-5 October 2019, Sofia, Bulgaria

The International Workshop "Shapes and Dynamics of Atomic Nuclei: Contemporary Aspects" (SDANCA-19) was held in the Hotel of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS) in Sofia, Bulgaria from the 3-rd to the 5-th of October 2019. The Workshop was organized by researchers from the Institute of Nuclear Research and Nuclear Energy (INRNE) in BAS with the financial support of the Bulgarian National Science Fund under contracts No. KP-06-N28/6 and KP-06-RILA/6. It appeared as the third issue of the workshop SDANCA-15 and SDANCA-17 held in the same place in 2015 and 2017.


The aim of the Workshop was to collect highly motivated researchers in the field of nuclear shape dynamics and related phenomena providing a possibility to discuss advanced ideas, open problems and future directions for developments in the subject. It was expected to outline points of common interest and inspire new ideas in the various contemporary aspects of the theoretical and experimental approaches to the shape-dynamics problem in atomic nuclei and other physical systems. We believe this meeting contributed for the strengthening of the existing collaborations as well as for attracting newly interested colleagues to the scientific community formed around the topic.

The SDANCA-19 Workshop covered the following main topics:
- Collective and microscopic models for nuclear deformations;
- Shapes and symmetries - geometric and algebraic aspects;
- Shape coexistence and shape-phase transition phenomena;
- Complex shapes, isomers and cluster phenomena;
- Shapes and dynamics at the limits of stability;
- New data on nuclear deformations and advanced experimental techniques;
- Interdisciplinary aspects: shape phenomena in other physical systems.

The Workshop was attended by 47 registered participants from 17 countries: Austria, Canada, China, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, India, Israel, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Russia, Spain, United Kingdom, United States and Bulgaria. Additionally not-registered colleagues from INRNE and University of Sofia were also interested and have attended the presentations. The scientific program contained in total 34 talks and six 30 minutes discussions lead by conveners. Similarly to SDANCA-15 and -17, the discussions appeared to be really inspiring with many additional questions being raised and disputed. The talks and the discussions covered issues of microscopic and collective approaches and new experimental results as well, including: density and covariant-density functional theory, many-body/self-consistent theories, shell-model-based and ab-initio developments, group-theoretical (algebraic) models exploring different kinds of symmetries (unitary, symplectic, "proxy", etc.) associated with the most actual effects of shape coexistence, shape-phase transitions, shell effects, pairing and multipole interactions, geometric models treating softness, triaxiality and wobbling, chirality, rod-shape, pear-shape and dinuclear system effects, Hoyle states, nuclear isomers, new experimental data and techniques for lifetimes, moments and mass measurements, laser spectroscopy as well as intriguing interdisciplinary developments on nuclear astrophysics, nuclear clock elaboration and many related applications.

The SDANCA-19 Workshop contribution papers will be published in the Bulgarian Journal of Physics, after passing a refereeing procedure. Files of SDANCA-19 presentations (in pdf or ppt format) provided by some of the speakers, are posted on the PROGRAMME page of the present site (click "SLIDES" after the title to open the presentation).

The Organizing Committee of SDANCA-19 cordially thanks all participants and strongly hopes that all we meet again.

Nikolay Minkov

Workshop Photos

Important dates:


Submission of contribution manuscripts to contact e-mail 2: not later than 10 Nov 2019 (open)
Opening of the Workshop: 3-rd of October 2019
Submission of the abstract to the contact e-mail: 15-th of July 2019 (completed)
Registration through the Workshop registration form: 30-th of June 2019 (completed)

Conference Poster (download):



Second Announcement (download):


Dear Colleagues,

On behalf of the Organizing Committee of SDANCA-19, I would like to thank all of you for accepting to attend the Workshop. You can see the list of participants together with the titles and available abstracts of the announced talks on our web page: http://ntl.inrne.bas.bg/events/sdanca19/listp.php. Here we would like to announce the following details:

Travel schedules: For hotel reservation reason as well as to arrange the Workshop program we need information about your exact arrival and departure times. Dinner will be provided in the BAS restaurant for participants arriving on 2-nd of October. We believe that reaching the BAS hotel from Sofia airport is convenient. Still, 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) after a peer review. You can download the BJP LaTeX style package from the journal web page http://www.bjp-bg.com/authors together with the instructions for authors. Note that it differs from the abstracts template. Please consider the following details:

  • To meet the aim of 2019 publication we require that all manuscripts are submitted in a term starting by now and not later than 30 October. The review of each manuscript will be proceeded immediately after its receiving.

  • The manuscripts should not exceed 10 pages in the BJP style.

  • Please send the contribution files to Nikolay.Minkov@theo.physik.uni-giessen.de since the other address nminkov@inrne.bas.bg has some disc limitations. We need the LaTeX source and EPS/PDF/PNG figure files. Sending ZIP/RAR archives to the first address may cause problems. Therefore, it is preferable to send the figures as attachments.

    • We shall inform you about the program of talks as soon as ready.

    With kind regards,

    Nikolay Minkov
    Chair of the SDANCA-19 Organizing Committee

    First Announcement (download):

    Description: The Third International Workshop "Shapes and Dynamics of Atomic Nuclei: Contemporary Aspects" (SDANCA-19) will be held in the Hotel of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS) in Sofia, Bulgaria between the 2-nd (arrival day) and 6-th (departure day) of October 2019. The Workshop is organized by researchers from the Institute of Nuclear Research and Nuclear Energy (INRNE) in BAS with the financial support of the Bulgarian National Science Fund under contracts No. KP-06-N28/6 and KP-06-RILA/6. It appears as the third issue of the workshop SDANCA-15 and SDANCA-17 held in the same place in 2015 and 2017.

    Aim: The aim of the Workshop is to collect highly motivated researchers in the field of nuclear shape dynamics and related phenomena providing a possibility to discuss advanced ideas, open problems and future directions for developments in the subject. It is expected to outline points of common interest and inspire new ideas in the various contemporary aspects of the theoretical and experimental approaches to the shape-dynamics problem in atomic nuclei and other physical systems. We believe this meeting can strengthen the existing collaborations and attract newly interested colleagues to the scientific community formed around the topic.

    Main topics:

  • Collective and microscopic models for nuclear deformations;

  • Shapes and symmetries - geometric and algebraic aspects;

  • Shape coexistence and shape-phase transition phenomena;

  • Complex shapes, isomers and cluster phenomena;

  • 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 3-rd of October (Thursday) and will end in the evening of 5-th of October (Saturday) 2019. 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 common discussion at the end of each session. A final discussion is considered in the end, providing an opportunity to outline perspectives for further developments and joint activity

    Publication: We plan to publish the Workshop contribution articles in a regular issue of the Bulgarian Journal of Physics after refereeing. 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 speakers who wish to contribute with articles to provide the manuscripts shortly before or during the Workshop in order to publish them by the end of the year. We envisage a typical length of the contribution articles not exceeding 10 pages.

    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 (former Hotel Pliska), 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 (3-5 Oct) including an official dinner, dinner following arrival on 2-nd of October, breakfast on 6-th of October and the printed BJP volume with contribution articles, will be collected in cash in EURO at the registration in the Hotel. The fee is 350 EUR for regular participants and 220 EUR for students and accompanying persons. Single rooms, double rooms and apartments are available. Note: the number of rooms is limited and will be secured for participants in the order of registration. In case of overbooking the late registered participants will be accommodated in near hotels which may slightly increase their fee.

    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. Depending on the time allowed by the Program a collective sightseeing may be organized after the lunch on 6-th of October.

    Access from the Airport: The BAS hotel can be easily reached from Sofia Airport through Pliska Place. Pliska Place (former Hotel Pliska) 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 1.6 Lev (about 0.8 EUR) per passenger with each large piece of luggage requiring an additional ticket at the same price. Alternatively a taxi can be used (recommended company).

    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 30-th of June as well as submit an abstract of their talk (up to 1 page in LaTeX, Template here) to the contact e-mail below by 15-th of July 2019.

    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