Emergence of simple patterns in many-body systems: from macroscopic objects to the atomic nucleus

Strongly correlated many-body systems often display the emergence of simple patterns and regular behaviour of their global properties. Phenomena such as clusterization, collective motion and appearance of shell structures are commonly observed across different size, time, and energy scales in our universe. Although at the microscopic level their individual parts are described by complex interactions, the collective behaviour of these systems can exhibit strikingly regular patterns. This contribution provides an overview of the experimental signatures that are commonly used to identify the emergence of shell structures and collective phenomena in distinct physical systems. Examples in macroscopic systems are presented alongside features observed in atomic nuclei. The discussion is focused on the experimental trends observed for exotic nuclei in the vicinity of nuclear closed-shells, and the new challenges that recent experiments have posed in our understanding of emergent phenomena in nuclei.
Comment: Invited contribution prepared for the special issue of "The tower of effective (field) theories and the emergence of nuclear phenomena