Nuclear Superfluidity: Pairing in Finite Systems

Nuclear Superfluidity is a monograph devoted exclusively to pair correlations in nuclei. It begins by exploring pair correlations in a variety of systems including superconductivity in metals at low temperatures and superfluidity in liquid 3He and in neutron stars. The book goes on to introduce basic theoretical methods, symmetry breaking and symmetry restoration in finite many-body systems. The last few chapters are devoted to introducing results on the role of induced interactions in the structure of both normal and exotic nuclei. The most important of these is the renormalization of the pairing interaction due to the coupling of pairs of nucleons to low energy nuclear collective excitations. This book will be essential reading for researchers and students in experimental and theoretical nuclear physics, and related research fields such as metal clusters, fullerenes and quantum dots. This 2005 title has been reissued as an Open Access publication on Cambridge Core.

David M. Brink obtained his first degree at the University of Tasmania in 1951 and his D.Phil. at Oxford University in 1955. Between 1958 and 1993 he held academic positions in the University of Oxford, including a Fellowship at Balliol College and the Moseley Readership in Theoretical Physics, and taught many branches of physics at graduate and undergraduate level. From 1993 to 1998 he was Professor of the History of Physics at the University of Trento in Italy. Professor Brink is a Fellow of the Royal Society and in 1982 was a recipient of the Rutherford Medal of the Institute of Physics. He has published several books including Semi-classical Methods in Nucleus–Nucleus Scattering (Cambridge University Press, 1985).

Ricardo A. Broglia earned his Ph.D. at the University of Cuyo, Argentina, in 1965. Following positions at the University of Buenos Aires, the Niels Bohr Institute and the University of Minnesota, he joined the staff of the Niels Bohr Institute in 1970, where he is now adjunct Professor. In 1985 he was called to occupy the chair of Nuclear Structure at the University of Milan. Professor Broglia's research interests include nuclear structure and nuclear reactions, the physics of metal clusters and fullerenes, and the folding and aggregation of proteins. He has published several books on these subjects including Finite Quantum Systems coauthored with George Bertsch (Cambridge University Press, 1994).