Statistical spectroscopy for neutron-rich light nuclei

A statistical framework for nuclear spectroscopy and strength distributions for nuclear excitations and decays has been formulated over the years built on the initial ideas of the use of random matrix theory in shell model spaces. In this spectral distribution theory, statistically averaged forms for the nuclear level density and excitation strength distributions are obtained and making use of the group theoretical structure of the shell model spaces, the averages are evaluated. They avoid diagonalization of the Hamiltonian in many particle spaces and they are useful for problems of astrophysics. This article describes the application of spectral distribution theory to neutron-rich light nuclei. (author)