20547 Nuclear Physics

Credits: 4 advanced credits in Physics

Prerequisites: Students must fulfill all English requirements and take bibliographic instruction in the Library.

Required: Fundamentals of Physics I + Fundamentals of Physics II, Differential and Integral Calculus I (or Infinitesimal Calculus I), Modern Physics and Mechanics

Recommended: Differential and Integral Calculus II (or Infinitesimal Calculus II + Infinitesimal Calculus III), Electricity and Magnetism, Analytical Mechanics, Quantum Mechanics and Atomic Structure

The course is based on six chapters from Introduction to Nuclear and Particle Physics (2nd ed.), by A. Das and T. Ferbel (World Scientific, 2003); and a supplement on applications (in Hebrew), by I. Kelson, and Y. Cohen.

This is one of a series of courses designed to expose advanced students to central areas of current research in physics. It focuses on nuclear physics and covers many topics on the phenomenological level required in scientific areas such as Chemistry, Engineering, Biology and Medicine.

Topics: Fundamental concepts and relevant techniques – Rutherford scattering, cross-sections and their measurement, basic quantum considerations; Basic nuclear phenomenology – properties of nuclei, mass, radius, spin and magnetic moments, stability and decay, nuclear power, isospin, the deutron, nucleon-nucleon scattering; Nuclear models – the liquid drop model, Fermi gas model, shell model and spin-orbit interaction, collective model; Nuclear processes – alpha, beta and gamma decay, nuclear fission, nuclear fusion, natural and artificial radioactivity; Interaction of radiation and particles with matter – energy loss in matter, charged particles, neutrons, photons, multiple scattering and statistical considerations; Experimental techniques – detectors and accelerators (ionization cells, proportional counters, scintillators, time of flight, semiconductor counters, electrostatic accelerators, the cyclotron and its derivatives, linear accelerators); Applications – isotope marking, carbon dating, nuclear reactors, basic definitions and guidelines in health physics, uses of nuclear radiation for imaging and therapy in medicine.