Nuclear Physics

In General > s.a. constants; nuclear technology [including fusion, weapons]; symmetry.
* History: 1939, Lise Meitner and her nephew Otto Frisch, during a Christmas Eve walk, come up with the idea of nuclear fission (the term was taken from cell biology) while discussing results by Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann in Berlin; 1949, Nuclear shell model proposed; 1950's, Clear idea of n's and p's in the nuclei; 2002, Traditional nuclear physics is "dying" (work is now around engineering applications), and the excitement in the field has moved toward its marriage with astrophysics and understanding of nucleosynthesis in the early universe and in stars, the motivation behind the push for building the RIA (rare isotope accelerator).
* Models/calculations: The oldest model, still fundamentally fine but in practice difficult to calculate with, is the shell model; It can be used, starting with a mean field approximation with corrections, up to A = 60; Beyond that, use a deformed basis, and apply "angular momentum projection" numerically.
* Magic numbers: The nuclear shell model explains that nuclei with certain magic numbers (2, 8, 20, 28, 50 and 82) of neutrons and/or protons are especially stable because the neutrons and/or protons form closed shells; Nuclei that contain magic numbers of both protons and neutrons are even more stable and are said to be "doubly magic".
* Half-lives: ¹⁴C, 5.730 yr; ²¹⁴Po, 10^–4 s; ²³⁹Pt, 24,000 yr.

In Astrophysics and Cosmology > s.a. astrophysics; early universe; neutron stars [equation of state].
@ Books: Arnett 96 [nucleosynthesis]; Basdevant et al 05 [intro].
@ Related topics: Viola & Kwiatkowski AS(98)sep [boiling nuclei]; Metcalfe ap/00-in [white dwarves]; Mayer & Truran PRP(00) [nucleocosmochronology].

Other Effects and Special Topics > s.a. diffraction; radiation [Mössbauer].
* NMR/MRI: 1999, Achieved for gases, as opposed to liquids, and applied to the study of porous sandstone; Later will apply to medicine [@ news pn(99)oct].
@ Radioactivity: Gelletly PW(96) [history, applications]; Halliday CP(97) [Earth history].
@ Radiation, other: Jaworowski PT(99)sep [civilian protection]; Coursey & Nath PT(00)apr [radionuclide therapy].
@ Fusion: Alejandre PW(96) [stellarator]; Boozer RMP(04) [magnetic confinement].
@ Particle physics: Klapdor-Kleingrothaus IJMPD(04) [double-beta decay].
@ MRI: Mamin et al NaN(07) + pw(07)apr [90-nm resolution].

References
@ Books: Fermi 50; Lim 00 [problems, and atomic]; Walecka 04 [III]; Heyde 05 [II/III].
@ Books, II/III, with particle physics: Das & Ferbel 03; Henley & García 07.
@ Nuclei: Austin & Bertsch SA(95)jun [halos from excess n or p]; Zhao et al PRP(04) [as many-body with random 2-body interactions]; news pn(07)oct ["liquid drop" model and "nuclear syrup"]; Dean PT(07)nov [comprehensive description].
@ Equation of state: Baldo & Shaban NPB(08) [dependence on two-body and three-body forces].
@ Related topics: Herndon phy/05 [natural reactors, teaching]; Bertsch AJP(04)RL; Caurier et al RMP(05) [shell model].
@ History: Mladjenovic 98 [1932–1960s; r PT(99)may]; > s.a. history of physics.
> Online resources: Internet Encyclopedia of Science pages.

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