Читать книгу Nuclear Physics 1. Nuclear Deexcitations, Spontaneous Nuclear Reactions онлайн

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In general, nuclear physics is the physics of low energies, ranging from 250 eV to 10 GeV [SAO 04, GER 07, LAL 11]. The range of energies above 10 GeV [SAO 04, GER 07, LAL 11] relate to the physics of high energies whose purpose is to study the constituent particles of matter and the fundamental interactions between them. In this field, experimenters use particle accelerators that operate at very high energies or deliver very large beam intensities, thus allowing access to the fundamental laws of subatomic physics at very short distances. The most spectacular achievement to date is of course the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), launched in September 2008 at CERN.

Nuclear physics is an area that has experienced considerable growth since the discovery of radioactivity in 1896 by Henri Becquerel [HAL 11], well before the discovery of the atomic nucleus in 1911 by Ernest Rutherford [RUT 11]. Research in nuclear physics covers several topics ranging from subatomic particles to stars. It thus constitutes a fundamental component of physics, allowing the exploration of the infinitely large and the infinitely small [ARN 10]. In addition, nuclear physics makes it possible to understand many astrophysical phenomena such as nucleosynthesis processes (primordial, stellar and explosive) within the framework of the Big Bang model. The study of these processes allows us to understand the origin of chemical elements and to describe the evolution of supernova and neutron stars [SUR 98].