While neutron halos were discovered 30 years ago, this is the first book written on the subject of this exotic form of nuclei that typically contain many more neutrons than stable isotopes of those elements. It provides an introductory description of the halo and outlines the discovery and evidence for its existence. It also discusses different theoretical models of the halo's structure as well as models and techniques in reaction theory that have allowed us to study the halo. This is written at a level accessible to graduate students starting a PhD in nuclear physics. Halo nuclei are an exotic form of atomic nuclei that contain typically many more neutrons than stable isotopes of those elements. To give you a famous example, an atom of the element lithium has three electrons orbiting a nucleus with three protons and, usually, either 3 or 4 neutrons. The difference in the number of neutrons gives us two different isotopes of lithium, Li6 and Li7. But if you keep adding neutrons to the nucleus you will eventually reach Li11, with still 3 protons (that means it's lithium) but with 8 neutrons. This nucleus is so neutron-rich that the last two are very weakly bound to the rest of the nucleus (a Li9 core). What happens is a quantum mechanical effect: the two outer neutrons float around beyond the rest of the nuclear core at a distance that is beyond the range of the force that is holding them to the core. This is utterly counterintuitive. It means the nucleus looks like a core plus extended diffuse cloud of neutron probability: the halo. The author of the book, Jim Al-Khalili, is a theoretician who published some of the key papers on the structure of the halo in the mid and late 90s and was the first to determine its true size. This monograph is based on review articles he has written on the mathematical models used to determine the halo structure and the reactions used to model that structure.

In this book the author charts the developments in nuclear physics since its inception around a century ago by reviewing the key experiments that helped drive and shape our understanding of the field, especially in the context of the wider developments in physics in the early 20th century. In addition to providing a path through the field and the crucial events it looks at how these experiments not only answered key questions at the time but presented new challenges to the contemporary perception of the nuclear and sub-atomic worlds and how they helped develop our present understanding of nuclear physics.

This book presents an overview of the different few-body techniques developed in nuclear physics and their applications to explore the structural properties of neutron-rich unstable nuclei, the so-called halo nuclei. Formal theory of two- and three-body scattering are discussed in a compact and abridged form to initiate the beginners who want to investigate the problems of halo nuclei within the framework of three-body models. Readers gain in-depth knowledge about the methods involved to solve the two- and three-body scattering problem and a special focus is put on the Faddeev approach. In this sense, the authors address both the graduate students and senior researchers. Subsequently, a detailed analysis of the Efimov effect in three-body systems is presented and the search for the effect in atomic nuclei, both Borromean and non-Borromean is addressed. The book also presents a detailed account of how to analyze, within the framework of a 3-body approach and using realistic short range forces, the structural properties of halo nuclei. Finally, the authors discuss the recent progress in effective field theory by setting up the integral equations for 3-body scattering and applying it to study low energy scattering of neutrons off halo nuclear targets.

Since the mid-1980s increasing effort has been put into light exotic nuclei, that is light nuclei of unusual composition. The research of the exotic nuclei began with the advent of accelerated beams of such nuclei. This new technique has revitalized nuclear physics, and the facilities producing radioactive ion beams now offer opportunities for pion

The book provides a generalized theoretical technique for solving the fewbody Schrödinger equation. Straight forward approaches to solve it in terms of position vectors of constituent particles and using standard mathematical techniques become too cumbersome and inconvenient when the system contains more than two particles. The introduction of Jacobi vectors, hyperspherical variables and hyperspherical harmonics as an expansion basis is an elegant way to tackle systematically the problem of an increasing number of interacting particles. Analytic expressions for hyperspherical harmonics, appropriate symmetrisation of the wave function under exchange of identical particles and calculation of matrix elements of the interaction have been presented. Applications of this technique to various problems of physics have been discussed. In spite of straight forward generalization of the mathematical tools for increasing number of particles, the method becomes computationally difficult for more than a few particles. Hence various approximation methods have also been discussed. Chapters on the potential harmonics and its application to Bose-Einstein condensates (BEC) have been included to tackle dilute system of a large number of particles. A chapter on special numerical algorithms has also been provided. This monograph is a reference material for theoretical research in the few-body problems for research workers starting from advanced graduate level students to senior scientists.

This book focuses on the ideas to embed nuclear physics in the larger context of hadronic physics by stressing and deepening its widening overlap with particle, astroparticle and condensed matter physics and to emphasize the unity of the two facets not only of nuclear, but of the whole physics; the theoretical and the experimental ones. Counteracting the ominous trend of enlarging the gap between the two, the danger being of depriving experimental physics of ideas promoting experiments and of transforming theoretical physics into metaphysics. The reader will find modern conceptions on nuclear structure, how atomic nuclei are probed through the scattering of high energy electrons and how they interact when accelerated at ultra-relativistic energies. The item connects to the quest for the quark-gluon plasma, perhaps the central theme of the contemporary hadronic physics, whose unraveling requires a vast and profound knowledge of both nuclear and particle physics, in particular QCD.

This book reviews recent developments in the field of superheavy elements and the related phenomena of fission, cluster radioactivity, and drip line physics. Both the experimental and theoretical aspects are dealt with in detail. For the production of new elements in the laboratory, the process of cold compound nucleus formation is found to be most favorable both theoretically and experimentally. However, experimentally, hot fusion of nuclei has also been used. Both the physical and chemical methods of synthesizing new elements are discussed. The theoretical approaches considered here are those of the quantum-mechanical fragmentation theory, the self-consistent Hartree-Fock theory, and the relativistic mean field theory. Fission, a process inverse to the fusion of two nuclei, is also observed to be most favourably a cold phenomenon. Other important results are bi-modal fission and high n-multiplicity fission, which leads to the hyperdeformed scission mode. Cluster radioactivity is discussed both as a heavy cluster emission process and as super-asymmetric fission. The theory as well as the present experimental status are reviewed. Physics at drip lines is interesting not only for their structural properties but also for their use in the fusion of two nuclei; both aspects are discussed.

This is the most comprehensive collection of nuclear data available, allowing related calculations by using the server of the Institute for Transuranium Elements. The accompanying CD-ROM offers the necessary background and extensive information on the physics and radiology of familiar nuclides.

Describes how the processes in stars which produce the chemical elements for planets and life may be reproduced in laboratories.

Nuclear structure Physics connects to some of our fundamental questions about the creation of universe and its basic constituents. At the same time, precise knowledge on the subject has lead to develop many important tools of human kind such as proton therapy, radioactive dating etc. This book contains chapters on some of the crucial and trending research topics in nuclear structure, including the nuclei lying on the extremes of spin, isospin and mass. A better theoretical understanding of these topics is important beyond the confines of the nuclear structure community. Additionally, the book will showcase the applicability and success of the different nuclear effective interaction parameters near the drip line, where hints for level reordering have already been seen, and where one can test the isospin-dependence of the interaction. The book offers comprehensive coverage of the most essential topics, including: • Nuclear Structure of Nuclei at or Near Drip-Lines • Synthesis challenges and properties of Superheavy nuclei • Nuclear Structure and Nuclear models - Ab-initio calculations, cluster models, Shell-model/DSM, RMF, Skyrme • Shell Closure, Magicity and other novel features of nuclei at extremes • Structure of Toroidal, Bubble Nuclei, halo and other exotic nuclei These topics are not only very interesting from theoretical nuclear physics perspective but are also quite complimentary for ongoing nuclear physics experimental program worldwide. It is hoped that the book chapters written by experienced and well known researchers/experts will be helpful for the master students, graduate students and researchers and serve as a standard & uptodate research reference book on the topics covered.