"The field has expanded in so many directions, in connection with the increase in accessible energy, angular momentum, and nuclear species, and the new phenomena, which have been revealed, have stimulated conceptual developments concerning the significant degrees of freedom and their interplay in nuclear dynamics ... it would be impossible for us to provide an assessment of this vastly expanded subject with anything like the degree of comprehensiveness aimed at in the original text. At the same time, this text continues to describe the basis for the understanding of nuclear structures as we see it today ..."
foreword from the new preface
After many years, this classic two-volume treatise is now available again in an unabridged reprint. These volumes present the basic features of nuclear structure in terms of an integration of collective and independent particle aspects and remain a foundation for current efforts in the field. Central to the book's value is an approach that recognizes the many connections between concepts of nuclear physics and those of other many-body systems, and that deals boldly with the interplay between theory and experiment. Aside from the main text, which provides a systematic exposition of the subject, there are sections labeled “Illustrative Examples”, which present detailed analyses of experimental results and the manner in which they illuminate the concepts developed in the text. Many useful appendices on general theoretical tools are also included, covering topics such as angular momentum algebra, symmetry problems, statistical description of level densities, and theory of nuclear reactions and decays.
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Contents:
- Volume I: Single-Particle Motion:
- Symmetries and Conservation Laws
- Independent-Particle Motion
- Single-Particle Configurations
- Volume II: Nuclear Deformations:
- Rotational Spectra
- One-Particle Motion in Nonspherical Nuclei
- Vibrational Spectra
Readership: Graduate students and researchers in nuclear physics, as well as in other areas of quantal many-body physics.
Aage Bohr was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1922. He began studying physics at the University of Copenhagen in 1940. In 1943, his father had to flee Denmark to avoid arrest by the Nazis, and the whole family escaped to Sweden. Shortly afterwards, his father proceeded to England, and Bohr followed him. The former became associated with the atomic energy project and, during the two years until they returned to Denmark in 1945, they travelled together, spending extensive periods in London, Washington and Los Alamos. On his return to Denmark, Bohr resumed his studies at the University and obtained a master's degree in 1946. For the spring term of 1948, he was a member of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton. On a visit during that period to Columbia University he became interested in a newly discovered effect in the hyperfine structure in deuterium, and this led to his association with the University in 1949–50. Soon after his return to Copenhagen, he began the close cooperation with Ben Mottelson which has continued ever since. Bohr has been connected with the Niels Bohr Institute since the completion of his university studies. After the death of his father in 1962, Bohr followed him as director of the Institute until 1970. In 1957, Nordita was founded, and Bohr is the director of this institute.
Ben R Mottelson was born in Chicago, USA, in 1926. He received a Bachelor of Science degree from Purdue University in 1947. His graduate studies were at Harvard University and his PhD work on a problem in nuclear physics was directed by Professor Julian Schwinger and completed in 1950. Mottelson spent 1950–51 at the Institute for Theoretical Physics in Copenhagen (later the Niels Bohr Institute). A fellowship from the US Atomic Energy Commission permitted him to continue his work in Copenhagen for two more years, after which he held a research position in the CERN theoretical study group formed in Copenhagen. With the founding of the Nordic Institute for Theoretical Atomic Physics in Copenhagen in 1957, he took up a position of professor which he has held since. He spent the spring term of 1959 as a visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley. His close collaboration with Aage Bohr began in 1951 and has continued ever since.