Publisher's Synopsis
Already by the 1970s, some theorists had declared that nuclear structure physics was a "closed chapter" in science, but since then it has repeatedly been found necessary to re-open this closed chapter to address old problems and to explain new phen- ena. The present volume shows why a declaration that there is nothing more to learn about nuclear structure is premature - and outlines the path toward uni?cation of the diverse models still in use by nuclear theorists. In preparing the Second Edition of Models of the Atomic Nucleus I have expanded on two topics mentioned only brie?y in the First Edition. One is a more extensive discussion of the foundations of the independent-particle model, as established by Eugene Wigner in 1937. Despite ?rst appearances, that discussion is not prim- ily historical, but rather is an explanation of Wigner's early discovery of the lattice symmetries of the nucleus. For historical reasons, the geometry of the lattice was not emphasized in the 1930s and 1940s, but the symmetries inherent to the fcc l- tice led directly to the establishment of the independent-particle model as the central paradigm of nuclear theory - and eventually to the shell model and its modern va- ants. As discussed in Chap. 10, the coordinate-space geometry of the lattice, as distinct from an abstract "quantum space" interpretation, has clear implications for nuclear structure theory - and is indeed the motivation for writing this monograph.
