Nucleons and their structure,
hadrons and isospin,
two-nucleon systems;
NN interaction: phenomenological this dot that vs. chiral EFT;
the pion as a Goldstone boson of chiral symmetry breaking, and how
that changes its mass
;
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, Goldberger-Treiman
relation as a demo of approximate chiral symmetry
PHYS 500 QM I or equivalent [e.g. angular momentum coupling and Wigner-Eckart theorem, time-dependent perturbation theory for decays, scattering theory...]
Dirac equation is not assumed
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)
Wed Fri 9:30-11:00
1st lecture Jan 7, 2026. Material (including notes for half the lectures) on Canvas. Email instructors for access.