This book covers the structure and dynamics of atomic nuclei in terms of nucleons, pions, and quarks, all within a unified treatment of the nuclear response to an electromagnetic probe. The basic formalism is presented to describe the electromagnetic field and its interaction with nuclear matter for both real and virtual photons. Nuclear response is then analyzed in terms of structure functions in the case of inclusive and semi-inclusive inelastic electron scattering. The discussion covers pion production and one- or two-nucleon emission and compares the results with available data. The formalism is also extended to incident polarized electrons, polarized targets and nuclear recoil polarization. It contains a comprehensive description of photonuclear reactions at intermediate energies and a review of experimental data and previous theoretical approaches.

This volume contains the invited and contributed papers presented at the Fourth International Conference on Perspectives in Hadronic Physics and sent to the Editors within the deadline. The Conference was held at the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), Trieste, Italy, from May 12th to 16th, 2003, and was attended by about 100 scientists from 20 countries. The series ofConferences on Perspectives on Hadronic Physics takes place every two years since 1997 and follows the seven Workshops on Perspectives in Nuclear Physics at Intermediate Energies, organized every two years at ICTP since 1983. The aim of these Conferences is to discuss the status-of-the-art concerning the experimental and theoretical investigations of hadronic systems, from nucleons to nuclei and dense nuclear matter, in terms of the relevant underlying degrees of freedom. For such a reason the Fourth Conference has been focused on those experimental and theoretical topics which have been in the last few years the object of intensive investigations, viz. the various approaches employed to describe the structure of hadrons in terms of QCD and QCD inspired models, the recent developments in the treatment of the properties and propagations of hadronic states in the medium, the relevant progress done in the solution of the few- and many- hadron problems, the recent results in the experimental investigation of dense hadronic matter and, last but not least, the physics programs of existing Laboratories and the suggested projects for new Facilities.

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.

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.

This volume contains the proceedings of the conference held in Cortona, October 6-9, 2004, that was organized as part of the project “Theoretical Physics of Nuclei and Many-Body Systems” involving 17 Italian Universities and sponsored by the Italian Ministery of Research and University. All invited papers on the main subjects of the project as well as all the individual contributions on special topics are included. As such these proceedings review the work performed in the last two years by the participating Italian community of nuclear theorists. In addition, in a panel international perspectives are focussed on the future programmes of the experimental physics community.