Subatomic Physics: An Introduction to Nuclear and Particle Physics, and Astrophysics

This book is intended for undergraduate or beginning graduate students. The net outcome is material to cover one integrated course on Nuclear and Particle Physics as well as Astrophysics.

There are many advantages in teaching all these subjects together as they have become increasingly inseparable. From a theoretical point of view, understanding the similarities between atoms, nuclei and other hadrons and applying analogs from one to the other have been very effective in research and they have led to the development of all these fields. From an experimental point of view, a high energy experimentalist must understand nuclear physics, if he or she wants to construct new devices, like detectors, etc., appropriate for observing new high energy phenomena. Furthermore, an understanding of certain areas of astrophysics and the physics of the cosmos, demands a good grasp of both nuclear and particle physics.

This book is intended as a menu from which the reader can pick material according to his or her taste and interests. The authors inserted proper cross references to make a specific selection by the reader from this menu as easily digestible as possible. The authors supplied sets of problems with varying degree of complexity, accompanied by hints or a sketch of the solution, if needed, in most chapters.