Syllabus
1. Nuclear observables - Map of nuclides: decay half-times of nuclei in the NxZ plane, stability line, superheavy elements - Binding energies: nuclear masses, odd-even effects, p/2p and n/2n separation energies, magic numbers - Properties of ground-states: spin, parity, static magnetic and electric moments, distribution of mass and charge - Basic decay modes: α, β−, β+, electron capture (phenomenology), radioactive decay chains - Low-lying excitations: typical spectra of even and odd nuclei, vibrational and rotational bands, yrast states and moments of inertia - Electromagnetic transitions: transition types and multipolarities, selection rules, lifetimes, isomeric states
2. Nuclear models - Nucleus as a droplet: binding-energy formula, collective excitations (typical spectra, anharmonic effects, backbending), Bohr collective Hamiltonian - Nucleus as the Fermi gas: shell corrections to the binding energy, single-particle quantum numbers, spin-orbital interaction, particle-hole excitations in light nuclei, Nilsson model and the onset of deformation, occurrence of deformed nuclei on the map of nuclides - Components of a microscopic theory of nuclei: creation of the mean field, residual interactions of the short- and long-range type, pairing (superfluidity)
3. Nuclear interactions - Basic data on the NN interactions: nucleon-nucleon scattering, analysis of deuteron - Elementary description of NN interactions: charge independence, isospin, phenomenological potentials, bare interactions, interactions in nuclear medium - Microscopic considerations: meson exchanges, finite range of interactions, attracting forces vs. repulsive core, how this may work on the level of quarks and gluons
4. Nuclear processes - Alpha decay: transition through the Coulomb barrier, lifetime-energy correlation - Beta decay: three-body decay, properties of neutrino, shapes of electron spectra, exotic beta-decay types - Exotic types of radioactivity: emissions of nucleons or heavier-nuclei - Fission: fissibility of nuclei, drop-model description, mass distribution of fission fragments - Direct reactions: examples, time scales, role of single-particle states - Compound-nucleus reactions: neutron resonances, other compound-nucleus processes, Breit-Wigner formula, density of nuclear states at high energies, decays of the compound nucleus (particle evaporation, electromagnetic transitions, giant resonances) - Heavy-ion collisions: hadron matter, quark-gluon plasma - Nuclear astrophysics: nuclear fusion in stars, nucleosynthesis in early universe and in supernovae
Annotation
The basic characteristics of the atomic nucleus. Nuclear forces.
The transmutations of atomic nuclei. Nuclear reactions.
Nuclear models.