Less a text than a personalized complement to the standard texts, Casten's (Brookhaven National Laboratory; Institut fur Kernphysik, U. of Koln) approach cuts through the mathematical formalism of nuclear structure and presents the underlying physics of some pivotal models in a simple way that emphasizes semi-classical pictures of nuclear and nucleonic motion and repeatedly exploits a few fundamental ideas. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.
This book provides a useful survey and assessment of the study of low-energy collective and single particle excitations of medium and heavy nuclei. An ideal resource for graduate students, the book covers both experimental and theoretical perspectives. The author's simple intuitive approach will help the reader to understand the empirical systematics as well as detailed model calculations, without recourse to complex--and often--confusing formalism.
