Shaping Nuclear Physics: 50 Years Ago, Aage Bohr, Ben Mottelson, and James Rainwater Were Awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the 1975 Nobel Prize in Physics, we present the
individual contributions of the three laureates. On the one hand James Rainwater’s 1950 theoretical conclusion that several nuclei in their ground states acquire an ellipsoidal shape. And on the other hand the unified theory formulated by Aage Bohr and Ben Mottelson, which incorporates correlated single-particle and collective phonon states in the wavefunctions of nuclei. We discuss the ensuing experimental verification and new theoretical concepts and frameworks that are built upon these developments. Progress in the field was encouraged by the stimulating scientific atmosphere generated by Aage Bohr and Ben Mottelson at Niels Bohr’s Institute during the 1950s and beyond.