Volume II, together with Volume I, contains a systematic
treatment of the basis that has been gradually established
during the last decades for understanding the vast body of data
on nuclear properties and reactions The presentation involves
panty a development of the theoretical concepts and mathematical
tools and partly a critical analysis of experimental results in
terms of these concepts While the first volume is concerned with
single-particle motion and the formulation of symmetries. the
second volume deals with collective rotational and vibrational
motion as well as with the coupling of single-particle mown to
the collective degrees o' freedom.
The discussion exploits several different levels of
presentation, and this has motivated (he division of the
material into text, illustrative examples, and appendices The
text represents an attempt at a systematic development of the
subject in which each section is based on the concepts explained
in previous sections The comparison of theoretical concepts with
the experimental evidence is contained in the illustrative
examples; these examples are wonted out in considerable detail
and involve the lull arsenal of available theoretical tools. The
appendices are devoted to the development of general tools of
quantal theory and lo the analysis of idealized models that
provide useful insight into various aspects of nuclear structure
This division of material contributes to making the book
self-contained and at the same lime provides the opportunity to
elucidate the problems in a variety of different contexts.
The presentation reflects the authors' view or nuclear physics
as part of the broad development of concepts describing quantal
many-body systems ranging from atoms and condensed matter to the
structure of elementary particles Since the more advanced
theoretical concepts and mathematical tools employed in the text
are explicitly developed, the prerequisites do not go beyond
those expected of a graduate student in physics. However, the
subject is carried to the limits of our present comprehension in
a field that comprises a vast richness of phenomena, and a full
understanding of the material may require several stages of
study using the different dimensions of the presentation
