The interacting boson-fermion model has become in recent years the standard model for the description of atomic nuclei with an odd number of protons and/or neutrons. This book describes the mathematical framework on which the interacting boson-fermion model is built and presents applications to a variety of situations encountered in nuclei. The book addresses both the analytical and the numerical aspects of the problem. The analytical aspect requires the introduction of rather complex group theoretic methods, including the use of graded (or super) Lie algebras. The first (and so far only) example of supersymmetry occurring in nature is also discussed. The book is the first comprehensive treatment of the subject and will appeal to both theoretical and experimental physicists. The large number of explicit formulas for level energies, electromagnetic transition rates and intensities of transfer reactions presented in the book provide a simple but detailed way to analyse experimental data. This book can also be used as a textbook for advanced graduate students.

These proceedings comprise the contents of a major international conference on Perspectives of the Interacting Boson Model. Occasioned by the 20th Anniversary of this model, and attended by approx. 130 scientists from 29 countries, the topics focused on current and future research, which relates to the IBM. This model has now become one of the standard approaches to nuclear structure and has helped usher in a renaissance in that field and a new, unified perspective that focuses on dynamical symmetries and the key role of the valence nucleons. The algebraic approach fostered by the model is being extended to other fields, including nuclear reactions, molecular physics and baryon structure.

This book gives an account of the properties of the interacting boson model.

This book covers the essential features of a large variety of nuclear structure properties, both collective and microscopic in nature. Most of results are given in an analytical form thus giving deep insight into the relevant phenomena. Using coherent states as variational states, which allows a description in the classical phase space, or provides the generating function for a boson basis, is an efficient tool to account, in a realistic fashion, for many complex properties. A detailed comparison with all existing nuclear structure models provides readers with a proper framework and, at the same time, demonstrates the prospects for new developments. The topics addressed are very much of current concern in the field. The book will appeal to practicing researchers and, due to its self-contained account, can also be successfully read and used by new graduate students.

A variety of standard problems in theoretical nuclear-structure physics is addressed by the well-documented computer codes presented in this book. Most of these codes were available up to now only through personal contact. The subject matter ranges from microscopic models (the shell, Skyrme-Hartree-Fock, and cranked Nilsson models) through collective excitations (RPA, IBA, and geometric model) to the relativistic impulse approximation, three-body calculations, variational Monte Carlo methods, and electron scattering. The 5 1/4'' high-density floppy disk that comes with the book contains the FORTRAN codes of the problems that are tackled in each of the ten chapters. In the text, the precise theoretical foundations and motivations of each model or method are discussed together with the numerical methods employed. Instructions for the use of each code, and how to adapt them to local compilers and/or operating systems if necessary, are included.