Textbook in PDF format

This clear and concise introduction to nuclear physics provides an excel-lent basis for a ‘core’ undergraduate course in this area. The book opens by setting nuclear physics in the context of elemen-tary particle physics and then shows how simple models can provide an understanding of the properties of nuclei, both in their ground states and excited states, and also of the nature of nuclear reactions. The book includes chapters on nuclear fission, its application in nuclear power reactors, and the role of nuclear physics in energy production and nucleo-synthesis in stars. This new edition contains several additional topics: muon-catalysed fusion, the nuclear and neutrino physics of supernovae, neutrino mass and neutrino oscillations, and the biological effects of radiation. A knowledge of basic quantum mechanics and special relativity is assumed. Appendices deal with other more specialised topics. Each chap-ter ends with a set of problems for which outline solutions are provided. NOELCOTTINGHAMand DEREKGREENWOODare theoreticians working in the H. H. Wills Physics Laboratory at the University of Bristol. Noel Cottingham is also a visiting professor at the Universite ´ Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris. They have also collaborated in an undergraduate text, Electricity and Magnetism, and a graduate text, An Introduction to the Standard Model of Particle Physics. Both books are published by the Cambridge University Press