by David J Rowe (University of Toronto, Canada) & John L Wood (Georgia Institute of Technology, USA)

This first book of two volumes reviews the basic models and theories of nuclear structure and gives an in-depth analysis of their experimental and mathematical foundations. It shows the relationships between the models and exhibits the value of following the strategy of: looking for patterns in all the data available, developing phenomenological models to explain them, and finally giving the models a foundation in a fundamental microscopic theory of interacting neutrons and protons.

This unique book takes a newcomer from an introduction to nuclear structure physics to the frontiers of the subject along a painless path. It provides both the experimental and mathematical foundations of the essential models in a way that is accessible to a broad range of experimental and theoretical physicists. Thus, the book provides a unique resource and an exposition of the essential principles, mathematical structures, assumptions, and observational data on which the models and theories are based. It avoids discussion of many non-essential variations and technical details of the models.

Volume II: Unified Models shows the relationship between the macroscopic and microscopic perspectives of nuclear structure theory and presents the essentials of modern developments.

• Elements of Nuclear Structure
• The Bohr Collective Model
• The IPM and the Shell Model
• Independent-Pair Models
• The Algebraic Collective Model