Pairing and shell evolution in neutron rich nuclei

From the experimental data on odd-even staggering of masses, we have shown that variation of pairing as a function of neutron number plays an important role in many distinctive features like occurrence of new shell closures, shell erosion, anomalous reduction of the energy of the first 2+ state and slower increase in the B(E2, 2_{+}^{1} \rightarrow 0_{+}^{1}) in the neutron-rich even-even nuclei in different mass regions. New predictions have been made in a model independent way. Results of theoretical calculations support the phenomenological findings.