In a recent paper in "Physical Review Letters" (Phys. Rev. Lett.107, 122501), Pengwei Zhao (First author), JieMeng (corresponding author) and their collaborators reported the first microscopic interpretation for antimagnetic rotation in atomic nuclei.

Thenuclear rotation has been at the forefrontof nuclear physics for several decades. In particular in the 1990s, the experimental discovery ofregular rotational-like bands in nearly spherical nuclei has opened new era inhigh-spin physics. In order to explain these observations, the concept of“magnetic rotation” was introduced which alludes to some analogy with a ferromagnet. Furthermore, in analogy with an antiferromagnet, a similar phenomenon "antimagnetic rotation" has been predictedin nuclei which has been confirmed by laterexperiments. So far, the investigation ofnuclear antimagnetic rotation has become one of the most important topics in nuclear physics.

Over the past decade, Professor JieMeng’s Group has been committed to the development of the covariant density functional theory (CDFT) and its applications in atomic nuclei. In this work, they investigated the antimagnetic rotation band in 105Cd in the framework of titled axis cranking model based on CDFT, and reproduced the experimental data quite well. In particular, for the first time, they provide a fully self-consistent and microscopic interpretation for antimagnetic rotation in nuclei. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, Oversea Distinguished Professor project from Ministry of Education and Major State 973Program.