Nuclear and Particle Physics
An Introduction
Chapter One
Basic Concepts
1.1 History
Although this book will not follow a strictly historical development, to 'set the scene' this
first chapter will start with a brief review of the most important discoveries that led to the
separation of nuclear physics from atomic physics as a subject in its own right and later
work that in its turn led to the emergence of particle physics from nuclear physics.
1.1.1 The Origins of Nuclear Physics
Nuclear physics as a subject distinct from atomic physics could be said to date from 1896,
the year that Becquerel observed that photographic plates were being fogged by an unknown
radiation emanating from uranium ores. He had accidentally discovered radioactivity: the
fact that some nuclei are unstable and spontaneously decay. The name was coined by Marie
Curie two years later to distinguish this phenomenon from induced forms of radiation. In the
years that followed, radioactivity was extensively investigated, notably by the husband and
wife team of Pierre and Marie ... read full excerpt from Nuclear and Particle Physics: An Introduction ebook
