Halo Influence on RIB Physics

Journal article, 2014

©, Copyright Taylor & Francis. We are now well past the silver jubilee for halo nuclei and it may be of some interest to look back and reflect on how the emergence of this new type of nuclear structure has influenced the progress of our science. Time-wise, the discovery of halos coincide with the rapid growth of the field of radioactive ion beams (RIB) also called radioactive nuclear beams, as seen, for example, from the conference series starting in 1989 that carried this name. Even though many of the developments within RIB physics would have happened without the impetus given by the many experiments on halo nuclei, many were indeed triggered by the halo phenomenon and the speed with which they have been implemented has certainly been increased. We shall briefly recall some historical important contributions to halo physics and attempt to show the many-faceted influence they have had. We also offer some speculations on the future progress.