In recent years, a new field of nuclear research has been opened through the possibility of studying nuclei wi\h very large values of angular momentum, temperature, pressure and number of particles. This development has been closely associated with heavy ion reactions, since collisions between two heavy nuclei are especially effective in producing metastable compound systems with large angular momentum, and in transferring energy which is distributed over the whole nuclear volume. Under the strain of temperature and of the Coriolis and centrifugal forces, the nucleus displays structural changes which can be interpreted in terms of pairing and shape phase transit ions. This was the subject of the lectures of J. D. Garrett, P. J. Twin and S. Levit. While the rotational motion is, at zero temperature un damped, the width of giant resonances indicate that the nucleus only oscillates through few periods before the motion is damp ed by particle decay, and through coupling to the compound nucleus. Temperature and angular momentum influence in an im portant way the properties of both giant resonances and rotatio nal motion. These subjects were developed by K. Snover, and by P. F. Bortignon and R. A. Broglia, as well as by A. Bracco, A. Dellafiore and F. Matera.

This advanced textbook presents an extensive and diverse study of low-energy nuclear physics considering the nucleus as a quantum system of strongly interacting constituents. The contents guide students from the basic facts and ideas to more modern topics including important developments over the last 20 years, resulting in a comprehensive collection of major modern-day nuclear models otherwise unavailable in the current literature. The book emphasizes the common features of the nucleus and other many-body mesoscopic systems currently in the center of interest in physics. The authors have also included full problem sets that can be selected by lecturers and adjusted to specific interests for more advanced students, with many chapters containing links to freely available computer code. As a result, readers are equipped for scientific work in mesoscopic physics.

The International School of Fusion Reactor Technology started its courses 15 years ago and since then has mantained a biennial pace. Generally, each course has developed the subject which was announced in advance at the closing of the previous course. The subject to which the present proceedings refer was chosen in violation of that rule so as to satisfy the recent and diffuse interest in cold fusion among the main European laboratories involved in controlled thermonuclear research (CTR). In the second half of 1986 we started to prepare a workshop aimed at assessing the state of the art and possibly of the perspectives of muon- catalyzed fusion. Research in this field has recently produced exciting experimental results open to important practical applications. We thought it worthwhile to consider also the beneficial effects and problems of the polarization ofthe nuclei in both cold and thermonuclear fusion. In preparing the 8th Course on Fusion Reactor Technology, it was necessary to abandon the traditional course format because the influence of the workshop procedure was inevitable: the participants were roughly equally divided into experts in cold fusion and experts in thermonuclear fusion. The course had largely an interdisciplinary character as many disciplines were involved: atomic and molecular physics, nuclear physics, accelerator technology, system analysis, etc. Plasma physics was excluded, with a sigh of relief from the experts in thermonuclear fusion.

This volume features contributions by the leading authorities on the physics of unstable nuclei. It provides an important updated source in the nuclear physics literature for the researchers and post-graduates studying nuclear physics with unstable beams around the world. The focus is on the new experimental facilities for the production of unstable beams and on the latest developments in microscopic theories of nuclear structure and reactions. Sample Chapter(s). Chapter 1: STUDIES at the RIKEN RI BEAM FACTORY (625 KB). Contents: Studies at the RIKEN RI Beam Factory (T Motobayashi); Dilute Nuclear States (M Freer); The ICHOR Project and Spin-Isospin Physics with Unstable Beams (H Sakai); Nuclear Reactions with Weakly-Bound Systems: The Treatment of the Continuum (C H Dasso & A Vitturi); Dynamic Evolution of Three-Body Decaying Resonances (A S Jensen et al.); Angular Dispersion Behavior in Heavy Ion Elastic Scattering (A Wang et al.); Microscopic Optical Potential in Relativistic Approach (Z Yu Ma et al.); Thermal Pairing in Nuclei (N D Dang); Low-Momentum Interactions for Nuclei (A Schwenk); Invariant Mass Spectroscopy of Halo Nuclei (T Nakamura et al.); Knockout Reaction Spectroscopy of Exotic Nuclei (J A Tostevin); Pairing Correlations in Halo Nuclei (H Sagawa & K Hagino); Study of Giant Dipole Resonance in Continuum Relativistic Random Phase Approximation (D Yang et al.); A Study of Pairing Interaction in a Separable Form (Y Tian et al.); Microscopic Calculations Based on a Skyrme Functional Plus the Pairing Contribution (J Li et al.); The Effect of the Tensor Force on Single-Particle States and on the Isotope Shift (W Zou et al.); and other papers. Readership: Researchers, advanced graduates and post-graduates in nuclear physics.

This volume presents a comprehensive introduction to the study of nuclear structure at finite temperature. By measuring the frequencies of the high-energy photons emitted or absorbed by an atomic nucleus it is possible to visualize the structure of that nucleus. In such experiments it is observed that the atomic nucleus displays resonant behavior, absorbing or emitting photons within a relatively narrow range of frequencies. To study emission processes one measures the y-decay of compound nuclei, and by this means it is possible to probe the structure of the nucleus at finite temperature. This book is divided into two main parts: the study of giant resonances based on the atomic nucleus ground state (zero temperature), and the study of the y-decay of giant resonances from compound (finite temperature) nuclei. As this work is an outgrowth of their lectures to fourth-year students at the University of Milan, the authors have placed special emphasis on the general concepts that form the foundation of the phenomenon of giant resonances. This basic subject matter is supplemented with material taken from work going on at the forefront of research on the structure of hot nuclei. Thus, this volume will serve as an essential reference for both young researchers and experienced practitioners.

For ten days at the end of September, 1987, a group of about 75 scientists from 21 different countries gathered in a restored monastery on a 750 meter high piece of rock jutting out of the Mediterranean Sea to discuss the simulation of the transport of electrons and photons using Monte Carlo techniques. When we first had the idea for this meeting, Ralph Nelson, who had organized a previous course at the "Ettore Majorana" Centre for Scientific Culture, suggested that Erice would be the ideal place for such a meeting. Nahum, Nelson and Rogers became Co-Directors of the Course, with the help of Alessandro Rindi, the Director of the School of Radiation Damage and Protection, and Professor Antonino Zichichi, Director of the "Ettore Majorana" Centre. The course was an outstanding success, both scientifically and socially, and those at the meeting will carry the marks of having attended, both intellectually and on a personal level where many friendships were made. The scientific content of the course was at a very high caliber, both because of the hard work done by all the lecturers in preparing their lectures (e. g. , complete copies of each lecture were available at the beginning of the course) and because of the high quality of the "students", many of whom were accomplished experts in the field. The outstanding facilities of the Centre contributed greatly to the success. This volume contains the formal record of the course lectures.