Particles and Nuclei : An Introduction to the Physical Concepts

The aim of PARTICLES AND NUCLEI is to give a unified description of nuclear and particle physics because the experiments which have uncovered the substructure of atomic nuclei and nucleons are conceptually similar.

With the progress of experimental and theoretical methods, atoms, nuclei, nucleons, and finally quarks have been analysed during the course of this century.

The intuitive assumption that our world is composed of a few constituents - an idea which seems attractive, but could not be taken for granted - appears to be confirmed.

Moreover, the interactions between these constituents of matter can be formulated elegantly, and are well understood conceptionally, within the so-called "standard model" . we have arrived at this underlying theory we are immediately faced Once with the question of how the complex structures around us are produced by it.

On the way from elementary particles to nucleons and nuclei we learn that the "fundamental" laws of the interaction between elementary particles are less and less recognizable in composite systems because many-body interactions cause greater and greater complexity for larger systems.

This book is therefore divided into two parts. In the first part we deal with the reduction of matter in all its complication to a few elementary constituents and interactions, while the second part is devoted to the composition of hadrons and nuclei from their constituents.