by L S Celenza (Brooklyn, CUNY) & C M Shakin (Brooklyn, CUNY)

The last decade has seen a revolution in how we think about nuclear structure. It has become clear that the nucleus is a relativistic system and that the motion of nucleons is best described by the Dirac equation. The book describes some of the successes achieved in the relativistic approach with an emphasis on parameter-free models.

• Introduction: Traditional Pictures of Nuclear Structure
• Dirac Phenomenology and Relativistic Brueckner-Hartree-Fock Theory
• Application of Dirac Phenomenology
• The Relativistic Impulse Approximation
• Importance of Scalar Fields in Nuclear and Particle Physics
• The Nucleus as a Relativistic Fermi Liquid: Effective Lagrangians and One-Boson-Exchange Models of the Nucleon-Nucleon Interaction
• Relativistic Brueckner-Hartree-Fock Theory
• Calculation of the Nucleon Self-Energy in Nuclear Matter
• Binding Energy and Saturation Density of Nuclear Matter
• The Effective Interaction between Nuclear Quasi-Particles-the Migdal Parameterization
• Models of Finite Nuclei
• The Nuclear Optical Model: The Self-Energy of a Continuum Nucleon in Nuclear Matter
• The Relativistic Optical Model for Finite Nuclei
• Relation between Relativistic and Non-Relativistic Optical Models
• Scattering Amplitudes: On-Shell and Off-Shell
• The Relativistic Impulse Approximation
• Applications of the Relativistic Impulse Approximation
• Appendices: Notation and Conventions
• Feynman Diagrams with Nonperturbative Elements
• Rules for the Evaluation of Feynman Diagrams and the Relativistic Impulse Approximation
• The Bethe-Salpeter Equation
• The Boson-Exchange-Model of the Nuclear Force
• Self-Consistent-Field Methods in Relativistic Many-Body Theory
• Scattering Amplitudes, Cross Sections and Spin Observables