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Nuclei and Particles

When you'll study it
Semester 2
CATS points
15
ECTS points
7.5
Level
Level 6
Module lead
Elena Accomando
Academic year
2025-26

Module overview

Students will learn about Nuclear Scattering, various properties of Nuclei, the Liquid Drop Model and the Shell Model, radioactive decay, fission and fusion. By the end of the course, the students should be able to classify elementary particles into hadrons and leptons, and understand how hadrons are constructed from quarks. They will also learn about flavour quantum numbers such as isospin, strangeness, etc. and understand which interactions conserve which quantum numbers. They will study the carriers of the fundamental interactions and have a qualitative understanding of QCD as well as the mechanisms of weak and electromagnetic interactions.

This course provides an introduction to nuclear and particle physics. There are approximately 16 lectures for each section supplemented by directed reading. Lectures delivered using mainly blackboard and with a slight admixture of computer presentation for selected topics.

There will be three problem sheets with respective three sessions devoted to going over these problem sheets. Model solutions will be provided after the problem sheets are due to be handed in. The problem sheets also contain non-assessed supplementary questions usually of a descriptive nature designed for deeper understanding of the material.

Linked modules

Pre-requisites: PHYS1011 AND PHYS2001 AND PHYS2003 AND PHYS3008