Electron Scattering from Complex Nuclei, Part A covers the historical phases of experimental development in elastic and inelastic electron scattering. This five-chapter text presents the logical development of the underlying theory of electron scattering. After briefly discussing the history of electron scattering from nuclei, this book goes on describing the theory of elastic scattering from a point nucleus, both with Born approximation and the accurate solution of the Dirac equation, as well as the corresponding experiments. The following chapter considers the analysis of nuclear charge distributions experiments using Born cross section and phase-shift methods. A chapter is devoted to the complete elastic and inelastic Born theory. This chapter also deals with the derivation of a theorem on the general form of the electron-nucleus scattering cross section, with an emphasis on the influence of the neglected transverse interaction on the cross section. The last chapter presents the status of elastic scattering along with some topics in muonic atoms that also determine nuclear charge densities. This book will be of great benefit to physicists, researchers, and graduate students who are interested in nuclear structure problems.

Electron Scattering from Complex Nuclei, Part B is a three-chapter text that explores the excitation of the nucleus to bound levels and the nucleus breakup through particle emission from continuum states. The first chapter discusses the inelastic scattering to nuclear levels, the giant resonances, the concepts of radiative corrections, and the phase shift analysis for inelastic scattering. The subsequent chapter concerns the quasi-elastic continuum and the observations of the nuclear decay products. The last chapter presents special topics on electron scattering, such as dispersion and exchange corrections, sum rules, and isospin effects. Physicists, researchers, and graduate students will find this book invaluable.

Understanding of protons and neutrons, or "nucleons"â€"the building blocks of atomic nucleiâ€"has advanced dramatically, both theoretically and experimentally, in the past half century. A central goal of modern nuclear physics is to understand the structure of the proton and neutron directly from the dynamics of their quarks and gluons governed by the theory of their interactions, quantum chromodynamics (QCD), and how nuclear interactions between protons and neutrons emerge from these dynamics. With deeper understanding of the quark-gluon structure of matter, scientists are poised to reach a deeper picture of these building blocks, and atomic nuclei themselves, as collective many-body systems with new emergent behavior. The development of a U.S. domestic electron-ion collider (EIC) facility has the potential to answer questions that are central to completing an understanding of atoms and integral to the agenda of nuclear physics today. This study assesses the merits and significance of the science that could be addressed by an EIC, and its importance to nuclear physics in particular and to the physical sciences in general. It evaluates the significance of the science that would be enabled by the construction of an EIC, its benefits to U.S. leadership in nuclear physics, and the benefits to other fields of science of a U.S.-based EIC.

Dramatic progress has been made in all branches of physics since the National Research Council's 1986 decadal survey of the field. The Physics in a New Era series explores these advances and looks ahead to future goals. The series includes assessments of the major subfields and reports on several smaller subfields, and preparation has begun on an overview volume on the unity of physics, its relationships to other fields, and its contributions to national needs. Nuclear Physics is the latest volume of the series. The book describes current activity in understanding nuclear structure and symmetries, the behavior of matter at extreme densities, the role of nuclear physics in astrophysics and cosmology, and the instrumentation and facilities used by the field. It makes recommendations on the resources needed for experimental and theoretical advances in the coming decade.

Recent advances in three areas of nuclear physics are addressed in this volume. The theory of the ground state of matter is fundamental to many areas of physics and, in particular, is crucial to a microscopic understanding of nuclear physics. All conclusions concerning the relevance of me sonic, nu clear isobar, and quark degrees of freedom to nuclear structure are nec essarily subject to limitations in one's ability to accurately solve the nuclear many-body problem with static two-body interactions. Thus, it is particularly significant that in recent years great advances have been made in the vari ational theory of the ground state of zero-temperature infinite matter. The first article presents a pedagogical treatment of these advances and surveys computational results for a variety of model and physical systems. The second article reviews recent progress in determining nuclear tran sition densities from inelastic electron scattering. In the past, detailed knowl edge of the charge distributions in nuclear ground states obtained from inverting elastic electron scattering data has proven extremely valuable.