Nuclear Physics: An Introduction

The book bridges the gap between a course on modern physics and an advanced formal treatise on Nuclear Physics. The treatment of topics is less formal, simple and direct. Physical ideas are given prominence and this has been done by informal discussions and many analogies. It starts with the tools of nuclear physics, both experimental and mathematical. The author has taken special care in treating the nuclear shell model. Throughout, the analogy with atomic and molecular physics is taken advantage of it. It is a suitable text for any student who has been exposed to a college level course in modern physics and mathematical competence at the level of calculus and elementary vector analysis. An important feature of the book is that numerous illustrative examples have been given. This should help in developing and sustaining student’s interest and motivating him. The effort is augmented by about 200 neatly drawn figures and problem question sets. In this edition four new appendices–Two-Nucleon Wave Function in Isospin Space, Isotopic Spin of the Nucleon, Complete Wave Function for the Two-Nucleon System: Pauli Principle and the Wigner-Eckart Theorem are added to meet a long standing demand from the readers. Inclusion of these appendices would make this book more useful to both students and teachers of the subject.