This successful text comprises a course on nuclear physics that leads the reader on an exploration of the field and its applications from nuclei to astrophysical issues.As a primer this course will lay the foundations for more specialized subjects. The physics is introduced with arguments based on simple ideas such as the empirical structure of nuclear forces and its interplay with the Pauli principle and Coulomb repulsion. The book then develops elementary nuclear models and illustrates nuclear systematics with experimental data. Reactions and decays are discussed both phenomenologically and from the point of view of fundamental electro-weak interaction theory while ther coverage of fission and fusion emphasize nuclear energy production. This leads directly into nuclear astrophysics and nucleosynthesis and cosmology.

Klappentext

Covers all the phenomenological and experimental data on nuclear physics and demonstrates the latest experimental developments that can be obtained.

Introduces modern theories of fundamental processes, in particular the electroweak standard model, without using the sophisticated underlying quantum field theoretical tools.

Incorporates all major present applications of nuclear physics at a level that is both understandable by a majority of physicists and scientists of many other fields, and usefull as a first introduction for students who intend to pursue in the domain.

Inhalt

Basic concepts in nuclear physics.- Nuclear models and stability.- Nuclear reactions.- Nuclear decays and fundamental interactions.- Radioactivity and all that.- Fission.- Fusion.- Nuclear Astrophysics.- Nuclear Cosmology.