Microscopic structure of nuclei from scattering through isobaric analogue resonances

Microscopic nuclear structure information that can be reached by proton scattering through isobaric analogue resonances (IAR) is discussed, mainly within the framework of weak-coupling. The concept of isospin for unbound states is examined. A critical evaluation of the methods for extracting nuclear structure information from the experimental results (such as excitation functions, angular distributions, etc.) is given. The mass regions that are studied in detail are the Pb-region and the N = 82 neutron single-closed shell nuclei. Attention is given to the comparison between weak-coupling calculations and experimental results supporting this concept in many nuclei. Level schemes as well as proton partial decay widths and angular distributions have been calculated and compared with the existing data concerning the proton decay of IAR. The concept of generalized neutron particle-hole (GNPH) state is introduced and its occurence extensively discussed within the Pb-region and N = 82 nuclei.