In remembrance of Walter Greiner

Abstract

A selection of W. Greiner's achievements is described, to give a view both on his "scientific biography" and on the evolution of nuclear Physics. The starting point of the description is a "model" of the nuclear structure displaying some understanding of the spontaneous fission of Uranium, whose adaptations to get a better insight in the dynamics disclosed the way to studies on the collisions of two heavy nuclei, now the so-called heavy-ion physics. It is emphasized how many relevant results rewarded such studies: the discovery of a large number of "transuranic" elements, amongst them two groups forming "islands of relative stability" in the map of nuclides, the prediction of "nuclear molecules" and of "giant" nuclear systems. The last mentioned possibility involves the "localization" of a very large positive electric charge (e.g. in the case two Uraniums), so opening the way, as proposed by Greiner, to experiments on the so called "decay of the vacuum".