Nuclei far from stability. Individual and collective excitations at low energy

The low energy structure of exotic nuclei is discussed in terms of self-consistent microscopic models. The experimental striking features of the spectroscopy of these nuclei are briefly surveyed and the schematic steps performed to obtain from effective N-N interactions their spectroscopic properties are presented. Their saturation and deformation properties are given by the Hartree-Fock approximation (HF). Then it is shown how to describe the dynamics of even-even exotic nuclei excited states by solving the complete Bohr Hamiltonian, built microscopically using the HF approximation and the adiabatic limit (and its derivatives) of the time-dependent HF approximation (ATDHF). The structure of odd and doubly odd nuclei is discussed in the framework of the unified model, ie the microscopic rotor + quasiparticles model. Finally possible future directions of experimental research concerning exotic nuclei are described and improvements or new theoretical approaches discussed