By Vladimir Zelevinsky and Alexander Volya Wiley
This new textbook of nuclear physics aims to provide a review of the foundations of this branch of physics as well as to present more modern topics, including the important developments of the last 20 years. Even though well-established textbooks exist in this field, the authors propose a more comprehensive essay for students who want to go deeper both in understanding the basic principles of nuclear physics and in learning about the problems that researchers are currently addressing. Indeed, a renewed interest has lately revitalised this field, following the availability of new experimental facilities and increased computational resources.
Another objective of this book, which is based on the lectures and teaching experience of the authors, is to clarify, at each step, the relationship between theoretical equations and experimental observables, as well as to highlight useful methods and algorithms from computational physics.
The last few chapters cover topics not normally included in standard courses of nuclear physics, and reflect the scientific interests – and occasionally the point of view – of the authors. Many problems are also provided at the end of each chapter, and some of them are fully solved.
Compiled by Virginia Greco, CERN.