This is the most recent and complete review on giant resonances in nuclei. It includes electric as well as magnetic collective states and a detailed discussion on the excitation mechanisms and the decay properties is given.
Giant resonances are collective excitations of the atomic nucleus, a typical quantum many-body system. The study of these fundamental modes has in many respects contributed to our understanding of the bulk behavior of the nucleus and of the dynamics of non-equilibrium excitations. Although the phenomenon of giant resonances has been known for more than 50 years, a large amount of information has been obtained in the last 10 years. This book gives an up-to-date, comprehensive account of our present knowledge of giant resonances. It presents the experimental facts and the techniques used to obtain that information, describes how these facts fit into theoretical concepts and how this allows to determine various nuclear properties which are otherwise difficult to obtain. Included as an introduction is an overview of the main facts, a short history of how the field has developed in the course of time, and a discussion of future perspectives.
The series of volumes, Contemporary Concepts in Physics, is addressed to the professional physicist and to the serious graduate student of physics. The subject of many-body systems constitutes a central chapter in the study of quantum mechanics, with applications ranging from elementary particle and condensed matter physics to the behaviour of compact stellar objects. Quantal size effects is one of the most fascinating facets of many-body physics; this is testified to by the developments taking place in the study of metallic clusters, fullerenes, nanophase materials, and atomic nuclei. 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.
This thesis reports on investigations of a specific collective mode of nuclear vibration, the isoscalar giant monopole resonance (ISGMR), the nuclear "breathing mode", the energy of which is directly related to a fundamental property of nuclei—the nuclear incompressibility. The alpha inelastic scattering experiments reported in this thesis have been critical to answering some fundamental questions about nuclear incompressibility and the symmetry energy, quantities that are crucial to our understanding of a number of phenomena in nuclear physics and astrophysics, including collective excitations in nuclei, radii of neutron stars, and the nature of stellar collapse and supernova explosions. The work described included three sets of experiments and subsequent sophisticated data analysis, both leading to results that have been welcomed by the community and recognised as important contributions to the field.
The series of volumes, Contemporary Concepts in Physics, is addressed to the professional physicist and to the serious graduate student of physics. The subject of many-body systems constitutes a central chapter in the study of quantum mechanics, with applications ranging from elementary particle and condensed matter physics to the behaviour of compact stellar objects. Quantal size effects is one of the most fascinating facets of many-body physics; this is testified to by the developments taking place in the study of metallic clusters, fullerenes, nanophase materials, and atomic nuclei. 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.