Elliott's SU(3) model is at the basis of the shell-model description of rotational motion in atomic nuclei. We demonstrate that SU(3) symmetry can be realized in a truncated shell-model space if constructed in terms of a sufficient number of collective $S$, $D$, $G$,...pairs (i.e., with angular momentum zero, two, four,...) and if the structure of the pairs is optimally determined either by a conjugate-gradient minimization method or from a Hartree-Fock intrinsic state. We illustrate the procedure for six protons and six neutrons in the $pf$ ($sdg$) shell and exactly reproduce the level energies and electric quadrupole properties of the ground-state rotational band with $SDG$ ($SDGI$) pairs. The $SD$-pair approximation without significant renormalization, on the other hand, cannot describe the full SU(3) collectivity. A mapping from Elliott's fermionic SU(3) model to systems with $s$, $d$, $g$,... bosons provides insight into the existence of a decoupled collective subspace in terms of $S$, $D$, $G$,... pairs.

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• Binding energy & masses
• Collective levels
• Electromagnetic transitions
• Nuclear forces
• Nuclear structure & decays
• Nucleon-nucleon interactions
• Collective models
• Hartree-Fock methods
• Models based on symmetries
• Shell model