This book is aimed at enabling the reader to obtain a working knowledge of the nuclear shell model and to understand nuclear structure within the framework of the shell model. Attention is concentrated on a coherent, self-contained exposition of the main ideas behind the model with ample illustrations to give an idea beyond formal exposition of the concepts. Since this text grew out of a course taught for advanced undergraduate and first-year graduate students in theoretical nuclear physics, the accents are on a detailed exposition of the material with step-by-step derivations rather than on a superficial description of a large number of topics. In this sense, the book differs from a number of books on theoretical nuclear physics by narrowing the subject to only the nuclear shell model. Most of the expressions used in many of the existing books treating the nuclear shell model are derived here in more detail, in a practitioner's way. Due to frequent student requests I have expanded of detail in order to take away the typical phrase " . . . after some the level simple and straightforward algebra one finds . . . ". The material could probably be treated in a one-year course (implying going through the problem sets and setting up a number of numerical studies by using the provided computer codes). The book is essentially self-contained but requires an introductory course on quantum mechanics and nuclear physics on a more general level.

In the present edition, a number of new features have been added. First of all, a number of typographical errors that had crept into the text have been corrected. More importantly, a number of new examples, figures and smaller sections have been added. In evaluating the two-body matrix elements which characterize the residual interaction, attention has been paid to the multipole expansion and insight into the importance of various multipoles is presented. The 18 example of 0 is now worked out for all the different angular momentum states in the section on configuration mixing. Some additional comments on how to determine one- and two-body matrix elements in jn configurations, on isospin and the application of isospin to the study of light odd-odd nuclei are included. In Chap. 3, a small section on the present use of large-scale shell model calculations and a section on experimental tests of how a nucleon actually moves inside the nucleus (using electromagnetic probing of nucleonic motion) has been added. In Chap. 4, some recent applications of the study of quadrupole motion in jn particle systems (with reference to the Po, Rn, Ra nuclei) are presented. In the discussion of magnetic dipole moments, the effects and importance of collective admixtures are pointed out and discussed. In Chap. 5, some small additions relating to the particle-hole conjugation and to the basic Hartree-Fock theory have been made. In Chap.

This book reviews the basic models and theories of nuclear structure and gives an in-depth analysis of their experimental and mathematical foundations. It shows the relationships between the models and exhibits the value of following the strategy of: looking for patterns in all the data available, developing phenomenological models to explain them, and finally giving the models a foundation in a fundamental microscopic theory of interacting neutrons and protons. This unique book takes a newcomer from an introduction to nuclear structure physics to the frontiers of the subject along a painless path. It provides both the experimental and mathematical foundations of the essential models in a way that is accessible to a broad range of experimental and theoretical physicists. Thus, the book provides a unique resource and an exposition of the essential principles, mathematical structures, assumptions, and observational data on which the models and theories are based. It avoids discussion of many non-essential variations and technical details of the models.