Nuclear physics

Nuclear physics is the field of physics that studies atomic nuclei and their constituents and interactions, in addition to the study of other forms of nuclear matter.

This article is about the study of atomic nuclei. For other uses, see Nuclear physics (disambiguation).

Nuclear physics should not be confused with atomic physics, which studies the atom as a whole, including its electrons.

Discoveries in nuclear physics have led to applications in many fields. This includes nuclear power, nuclear weapons, nuclear medicine and magnetic resonance imaging, industrial and agricultural isotopes, ion implantation in materials engineering, and radiocarbon dating in geology and archaeology. Such applications are studied in the field of nuclear engineering.

Particle physics evolved out of nuclear physics and the two fields are typically taught in close association. Nuclear astrophysics, the application of nuclear physics to astrophysics, is crucial in explaining the inner workings of stars and the origin of the chemical elements.

Belyaev, Alexander; Ross, Douglas (2021). . Undergraduate Texts in Physics. Cham: Springer International Publishing. ISBN 978-3-030-80115-1. Retrieved 2023-02-19.

The Basics of Nuclear and Particle Physics

Povh, Bogdan; Rith, Klaus; Scholz, Christoph; Zetsche, Frank; Rodejohann, Werner (2015). . Graduate Texts in Physics. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg. ISBN 978-3-662-46320-8. Retrieved 2024-05-27.

Particles and Nuclei: An Introduction to the Physical Concepts

Archived 2016-07-30 at the Wayback Machine

Ernest Rutherford's biography at the American Institute of Physics

Archived 2017-09-20 at the Wayback Machine

American Physical Society Division of Nuclear Physics

Archived 2008-12-02 at the Wayback Machine

American Nuclear Society

Annotated bibliography on nuclear physics from the Alsos Digital Library for Nuclear Issues

Archived 2013-10-21 at the Wayback Machine

Nuclear science wiki

Archived 2021-03-18 at the Wayback Machine

Nuclear Data Services – IAEA

Archived 2017-12-23 at the Wayback Machine, BBC Radio 4 discussion with Jim Al-Khalili, John Gribbin and Catherine Sutton (In Our Time, Jan. 10, 2002)