This book presents contributions from the Workshop on Rare Isotopes and Fundamental Symmetries, which was held on September 19-22, 2007, at the Institute for Nuclear Theory at the University of Washington. The book is the fourth in a series dedicated to exploring the science important to the proposed Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB). The topics covered by the contributions include Fermi beta decay, electron-neutrino correlations in nuclear beta decay: precision mass measurements, atomic parity violation, electric dipole moments, and hadronic parity violation and anapole moments.These topics highlight the recent work on the use of nuclei to understand the fundamental symmetries of nature. It presents current results as well as proposals for future experiments.

This book presents contributions from the Workshop on Rare Isotopes and Fundamental Symmetries, which was held on September 19-22, 2007, at the Institute for Nuclear Theory at the University of Washington. The book is the fourth in a series dedicated to exploring the science important to the proposed Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB). The topics covered by the contributions include Fermi beta decay, electron-neutrino correlations in nuclear beta decay: precision mass measurements, atomic parity violation, electric dipole moments, and hadronic parity violation and anapole moments. These topics highlight the recent work on the use of nuclei to understand the fundamental symmetries of nature. It presents current results as well as proposals for future experiments.

The principal goals of the study were to articulate the scientific rationale and objectives of the field and then to take a long-term strategic view of U.S. nuclear science in the global context for setting future directions for the field. Nuclear Physics: Exploring the Heart of Matter provides a long-term assessment of an outlook for nuclear physics. The first phase of the report articulates the scientific rationale and objectives of the field, while the second phase provides a global context for the field and its long-term priorities and proposes a framework for progress through 2020 and beyond. In the second phase of the study, also developing a framework for progress through 2020 and beyond, the committee carefully considered the balance between universities and government facilities in terms of research and workforce development and the role of international collaborations in leveraging future investments. Nuclear physics today is a diverse field, encompassing research that spans dimensions from a tiny fraction of the volume of the individual particles (neutrons and protons) in the atomic nucleus to the enormous scales of astrophysical objects in the cosmos. Nuclear Physics: Exploring the Heart of Matter explains the research objectives, which include the desire not only to better understand the nature of matter interacting at the nuclear level, but also to describe the state of the universe that existed at the big bang. This report explains how the universe can now be studied in the most advanced colliding-beam accelerators, where strong forces are the dominant interactions, as well as the nature of neutrinos.

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.

The IGISOL group at the University of Jyväskyla studies the properties of nuclei far off the line of beta stability. These studies are performed locally at the Jyväskylä Ion Guide Isotope Separator On-Line (IGISOL) facility, as well as at a number of other laboratories such as the ISOLDE facility in CERN, at GANIL and in Helmholzzentrum GSI, the location of the future radioactive beam facility FAIR. The group is also actively involved in work to support the development of international future facilities EURISOL and aforementioned FAIR. This book presents carefully selected papers to portrait the work at IGISOL. Previously published in the journals Hyperfine Interactions and European Physical Journal A.