Shell-model calculations and realistic effective interactions

A review is presented of the development and current status of nuclear shell-model calculations, in which the two-body effective interaction between valence nucleons is derived from the free nucleon–nucleon potential. The significant progress made in this field within the last decade is emphasized, in particular as regards the so-called V low−k approach to the renormalization of the bare nucleon–nucleon interaction. In the last part of the review, we first give a survey of realistic shell-model calculations from early to present days. Then, we report recent results for neutron-rich nuclei near doubly magic 132Sn, and for the whole even-mass N = 82 isotonic chain. These illustrate how shell-model effective interactions derived from modern nucleon–nucleon potentials are able to provide an accurate description of nuclear structure properties.