Effective charges, the valence p-n interaction, and the IBM

There are three recent themes in nuclear structure that come together in an interesting and useful way via the concept of effective charges and the framework of the IBM. These three concepts are the importance of dynamical symmetries in describing nuclear structure and the benefits that accrue from their exploitation, secondly, the critical role of the p-n interaction in the onset and development of collectivity in nuclei, and, thirdly, the importance of the valence nucleons in determining structure and its evolution. We will illustrate this by showing that the interpretation of measured B(E2) values in the context of the dynamical symmetries of the IBM leads to new insights into the meaning of effective charges and offers new avenues to understand the role of the proton-neutron (p-n) interaction in modulating the nature of the valence space and the growth of collectivity. In particular, we will show that effective charges in valence models, such as the IBM, can be interpreted in terms of derivatives of the collectivity of the low lying levels, that is, as measures of the rate of change of collectivity as the proton and neutron numbers vary. This paper is based on recent work by the authors