The ABC classification of exotic nuclei: a proposal

Abstract The large number of existing nuclear species and the long list of their possible different exotic properties, such as presence of a halo ( A ), Borromean structure ( B ), clusterization ( C ) and others, calls for a classification scheme that is universal, concise, categorical, informative, accessible and easily extensible. We provide here a first reasoned attempt to fill this gap with an abridged naming scheme, called ABC , based on definitions and properties that characterize modern nuclear physics. We limit our chart to light isotopes with $$Z\le 10$$ Z ≤ 10 where most of these features appear presently.