2024 Faculty Courses School of Science Department of Physics Graduate major in Physics
Advanced Nuclear Physics
- Academic unit or major
- Graduate major in Physics
- Instructor(s)
- Kimiko Sekiguchi / Kazuyuki Sekizawa
- Class Format
- Lecture (Face-to-face)
- Media-enhanced courses
- -
- Day of week/Period
(Classrooms) - 3-4 Tue / 3-4 Fri
- Class
- -
- Course Code
- PHY.F437
- Number of credits
- 200
- Course offered
- 2024
- Offered quarter
- 2Q
- Syllabus updated
- Mar 14, 2025
- Language
- English
Syllabus
Course overview and goals
Provide lectures on basics and applications of modern nuclear physics. Discuss important topics concerning a variety of phenomena. Discuss recent relevant articles, some of which are assigned as homework.
Atomic nuclei can be uniquely modeled as strongly correlated, self-bound, many-body quantum systems. By studying the physics of atomic nuclei, students will learn both theories and applications of quantum mechanics and quantum field theory. This class will also cover cutting-edge experiments on nuclei using modern accelerators, and recent experimental equipment and methods that are important to further understand nuclear physics.
Course description and aims
Students will understand basic nuclear physics that treats atomic nuclei as self-bound many-body quantum systems through recent progress in the cutting-edge fields (physics of unstable nuclei and hyper-nuclei). They will also be able to obtain a better perspective on their own research by learning about such advanced nuclear physics and the relevant applications to condensed-matter physics and astrophysics.
In this course, students will learn about the quantum dynamics of nuclei, nuclear structure and reactions, and the basic theory of strong interactions through various models and relevant experiments. They will also learn about recent theoretical and experimental work in this field.
Keywords
Atomic nuclei, strong interaction, self-bound systems, quantum many-body systems, nuclear structure, nuclear reaction, experiments using accelerators, rare isotopes, nucleo-synthesis, hypernuclei, strangeness
Competencies
- Specialist skills
- Intercultural skills
- Communication skills
- Critical thinking skills
- Practical and/or problem-solving skills
Class flow
Two professors of nuclear physics will give lectures: Prof. Kazuyuki Sekizawa treats nuclear physics with protons and neutrons, in particular, microscopic approaches for nuclear many-body problems and their applications. Prof. Kimiko Sekiguchi treats recent topics of nuclear force study, e.g. three-nucleon forces. Lectures are given in English. Slides are primarily used in the class with some handouts. Blackboards are used as well for explaining the points.
Course schedule/Objectives
| Course schedule | Objectives | |
|---|---|---|
| Class 1 | Bulk properties of nuclear forces | Understand bulk properties of nuclear forces |
| Class 2 | History of nuclear force study (1) | Understand history of nuclear force study |
| Class 3 | History of nuclear force study (2) | Understand history of nuclear force study |
| Class 4 | Three-body force in nuclei | Understand three-nucleon forces |
| Class 5 | Scattering phenomena in nuclei | Understand scattering phenomena in nuclei |
| Class 6 | Polarization phenomena in nuclei | Understand polarization phenomena in nuclei |
| Class 7 | Recent topics of nuclear physics and nuclear forces | Understand recent topics of nuclear physics and nuclear forces |
| Class 8 | Overview of nuclear physics | Understand the richness of nuclear many-body problems |
| Class 9 | Mean-field approaches: Hartree-Fock and density functional theories | Understand basics of microscopic mean-field approaches for nuclear many-body problems |
| Class 10 | Nuclear pairing: Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer and Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov theories | Understand how pairing correlations are described within mean-field approaches |
| Class 11 | Nuclear collective excitations: Random phase approximation | Understand how to describe nuclear collective excitations within random phase approximation |
| Class 12 | Nuclear reactions: Time-dependent mean-field approaches | Understand how various nuclear reactions are described within time-dependent mean-field approaches |
| Class 13 | Equation of state and neutron stars | Understand the relation between an equation of state and neutron star structure and various phases of dense nuclear matter |
| Class 14 | Quantized vortices and pulsar glitch phenomenon | Understand the nature of quantized vortices (flux tubes) in superfluid (superconductor) and its relation to pulsar glitch phenomenon |
Study advice (preparation and review)
To enhance effective learning, students are encouraged to spend approximately 100 minutes preparing for class and another 100 minutes reviewing class content afterwards (including assignments) for each class.
They should do so by referring to textbooks and other course material.
Textbook(s)
None required.
Reference books, course materials, etc.
Handouts are given in the class, or via OCW.
Evaluation methods and criteria
To be evaluated based on an examination, and report(s) dealing with problems indicated in the class
Related courses
- PHY.F430 ： Hadron Physics
- PHY.F436 ： Advanced Particle Physics
- PHY.F350 ： Nuclear Physics
- PHY.F351 ： Elementary Particles
- PHY.Q438 ： Quantum Mechanics of Many-Body Systems
- PHY.Q208 ： Quantum Mechanics II
- PHY.Q311 ： Quantum Mechanics III
- PHY.Q331 ： Relativistic Quantum Mechanics
Prerequisites
Basic under-graduate quantum physics course is a prerequisite.
Other
Please check the class schedule. The detailed schedule by Sekiguchi and Sekizawa will be given in the first class