multinucleon

Multinucleon is a term used in nuclear physics to describe phenomena or systems that involve more than one nucleon (protons and neutrons) within a nucleus or interacting body. It is often used as an umbrella concept for processes in which several nucleons participate either simultaneously or as correlated units, contrasting with single-nucleon processes described by simpler models.

In nuclear reactions, multinucleon transfer refers to events in which two or more nucleons are exchanged between colliding nuclei, typically in heavy-ion collisions at near-barrier energies. Such processes can create exotic, neutron-rich or proton-rich nuclei and provide information about pairing correlations, shell effects, and reaction mechanisms.

In neutrino and lepton scattering, multinucleon interactions describe processes where the incident particle interacts with a nucleus in a way that ejects two or more nucleons, such as two-particle–two-hole (2p-2h) excitations. These mechanisms, often involving meson exchange currents and short-range nucleon-nucleon correlations, affect cross sections and energy reconstruction in neutrino detectors.

In nuclear structure and reactions, short-range correlations lead to multinucleon components in the nuclear ground state, producing correlated nucleon pairs that contribute to high-momentum tails beyond the independent-particle model.

Overall, multinucleon concepts capture the involvement of multiple nucleons in reactions, reactions, and structure, and are essential for accurate modeling and interpretation in nuclear physics and related fields.