Testing the doubly magic character of tin-132

The shell model of nuclear structure predicts that nuclei with certain magic numbers of protons or neutrons will be more rigidly spherical and stable than their neighbors. The magic numbers - 2, 8, 20, 28, 50, 82, and 126 - are somewhat reminiscent of the atomic numbers of the noble gases, as well they should be. Just as completed shells of single-electron states convey extraordinary chemical stability, completed shells of single-neutron or single-proton states in the mean-field potential of all the other nucleons do much the same for nuclei.