Nuclear Density Functional Theory

This book summarizes the enormous amount of material accumulated in the field of nuclear density functional theory over the last few decades. The goal of the theory is to provide a complete quantum mechanical description and explanation of nuclear phenomena in terms of the local density distribution as a basic ingredient rather than the many particle wavefunction. This leads to a considerable reduction in the mathematical complexity of nuclear many-body problems and to a great conceptual simplicity and visual clarity in its theoretical treatment. The authors develop the mathematical framework on which the theory is based and consider the associated approaches used to analyze experimental data in a variety of nuclei and nuclear processes with widely differing properties.

'they have produced an excellent postgraduate textbook of the subject of nuclear density functional theory writ large ... The writing style is clear and authoritative, and the book will certainly repay careful study. I recommend this book both for its broad scope and for the ease with which it introduces a wide area of modern research to a reader with only a rudimentary knowledge of conventional nuclear many-body theory.' Professor R.F. Bishop (UMIST), Contemporary Physics, Volume 33, Number 1, January/February 1992