Physics of drip-line nuclei

The nature of exotic nuclei with extreme isospin values is analyzed within various models, with special emphasis on the role of coupling between bound states and the particle continuum. Applicability of the shell-correction method to nuclei far from the beta stability line is discussed. In particular, the sensitivity of predicted locations of one- and two-particle drip lines to details of the macroscopic-microscopic model is analyzed. Hartree-Fock and Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov theories with different parametrizations are used to calculate the properties of exotic nuclei (masses, deformations, radii, and single-particle properties). The results are compared with available experimental data, and their dependence on the models used is discussed.