Vibrational modes of light nuclei

A potential energy surface is constructed for various light nuclei, 3,4He with the Argonne V18 potential and then for alpha- conjugate nuclei like 12C,16O, 20Ne with α – α potentials. Despite the nucleons have large momenta and large fluctuations around the equilibrium points, the minimization suggests the underlying geometric structure. We calculate the Hessian matrix determining the normal modes of vibration. This approach might lead to a new way of fitting the alpha-alpha interactions on the spectroscopic data available for alpha-conjugate nuclei, rather than on scattering phase shift