Fundamentals in Nuclear Physics (eBook)

This course on nuclear physics leads the reader to the exploration of the field from nuclei to astrophysical issues. Much nuclear phenomenology can be understood from simple arguments such as those based on the Pauli principle and the Coulomb barrier. This book is concerned with extrapolating from such arguments and illustrating nuclear systematics with experimental data. Starting with the basic concepts in nuclear physics, nuclear models, and reactions, the book covers nuclear decays and the fundamental electro-weak interactions, radioactivity, and nuclear energy. After the discussions of fission and fusion leading into nuclear astrophysics, there is a presentation of the latest ideas about cosmology. As a primer this course will lay the foundations for more specialized subjects. This book emerged from a series of topical courses the authors delivered at the Ecole Polytechnique and will be useful for graduate students and for scientists in a variety of fields.

---

Nuclear physics began one century ago during the "e;miraculous decade"e; - tween 1895 and 1905 when the foundations of practically all modern physics were established. The period started with two unexpected spino?s of the Crooke's vacuum tube: Roentgen's X-rays (1895) and Thomson's electron (1897), the ?rst elementary particle to be discovered. Lorentz and Zeemann developed the the theory of the electron and the in?uence of magnetism on radiation. Quantum phenomenology began in December, 1900 with the - pearance of Planck's constant followed by Einstein's 1905 proposal of what is now called the photon. In 1905, Einstein also published the theories of relativity and of Brownian motion, the ultimate triumph of Boltzman's s- tistical theory, a year before his tragic death. For nuclear physics, the critical discovery was that of radioactivity by Becquerel in 1896. By analyzing the history of science, one can be convinced that there is some rationale in the fact that all of these discoveries came nearly sim- taneously, after the scienti?cally triumphant 19th century. The exception is radioactivity, an unexpected baby whose discovery could have happened s- eral decades earlier. Talentedscientists,theCuries,Rutherford,andmanyothers,tookthe- servationofradioactivityandconstructedtheideasthatarethesubjectofthis book. Of course, the discovery of radioactivity and nuclear physics is of much broader importance. It lead directly to quantum mechanics via Rutherford's planetary atomic model and Bohr's interpretation of the hydrogen spectrum. This in turn led to atomic physics, solid state physics, and material science.