PHYS 505 Nuclear Physics

Syllabus

Nucleons and their structure, hadrons and isospin, two-nucleon systems, the NN interaction;
the pion as a Goldstone boson of chiral symmetry breaking;
bulk properties of nuclei, nuclear excitations and radioactivity, nuclear models;
simple nuclear structure from space+spin+isospin+permutation antisymmetry;
strong and electromagnetic decay, scattering theory and nuclear reactions, nuclear astrophysics;
symmetries and weak interactions.

Prerequisites

PHYS 500 QM I or equivalent

Textbook:

Samuel S.M. Wong, Introductory Nuclear Physics, 2nd ed. Wiley (.pdf available at publisher with UBC library privileges)

(supplement for NN interactions and many-body theory) A. Obertelli and H. Sagawa, Modern Nuclear Physics..., 2021, Springer (ditto)

Lectures Jan-April 2025

Wed Fri 9:30-11:00

1st lecture (to be confirmed) Jan 15, 2025. Material (including notes for half the lectures) on Canvas. Email instructors for access.

Behr's lecture notes 2023:

Nucleon Structure Hadrons Isospin

NN Interaction

Isospin in Nuclei

Independent particle picture; Deformation; Light nuclei and permutation symmetry: Space Spin Isospin. Self-consistent mean field

Weak Interactions and Nuclei

Behr's problems:

HW2 nucleon, Delta0 magnetic moment

HW4 isospin examples

HW7 H-F; Detailed permutation symmetry and m scheme

HW11 Helicity-driven beta decay correlations