Undergraduate Course
Brief description of nuclear matter, properties, sources of unstability, modes of decays, nuclear reactions; Interaction of ionizing radiation with matter; health physics; nuclear instrumentation; particle accelerators and radiation sources; nuclear reactors, fission and fusion, energy sources. Applications of nuclear techniques: radioisotopes in chemistry, activation analysis and related techniques, dating techniques, nuclear astrophysics.
Undergraduate Course
Introduction to the techniques of radiochemistry; proportional and Geiger counters; sample preparations and half-life measurement; synthesis and separation of labelled compounds; beta and gamma-ray spectroscopy.
Undergraduate Course
Undergraduate, offered when requested Advanced topics in nuclear science. Offered: Fall 2005 Nuclear structure, decay, and reactions. A detailed survey of nuclear models, forms of excitation and decay, and production methods.
Undergraduate Courses
Formation and distribution of the chemical elements in the early universe, in present stellar environments and in the solar system; elemental abundances and isotopic ratios; experimental astrophysics and radiometric chronology techniques.
Graduate Course
Offered when requested Advanced topics in nuclear science. Offered: Fall 2005 Theoretical nuclear structure.Topics covered will include the nuclear mean field (Hartree-Fock, single particle energies, deformed Hartree Fock, rotational bands), excited states (TDA, RPA, giant resonances), and pairing (BCS).
Graduate Course
Offered on demand. Offered: Fall 2005 This is a reading course that surveys the techniques used in Experimental Particle Physics. Students typically read one chapter per week and the class meets to review the material. This takes the form of an informal lecture with plenty of interaction with the students. Problems are assigned and marked. Students are also required to present a 45 minute talk on a particle physics experiment. This allows them to see how the various detector concepts learned during the semester are integrated into a real experiment, including what comprimises have to be made to optimize the overall performance of the experiment rather than one particular element. Topics include interactions of charged particles with matter, particle beams and targets, scintillation counters, Cerenkov counters, proportional wire chambers, drift chambers, calorimetry, specialized detectors (i.e. TRDs, emulsions), electronics for subatomic physics (rudimentary), and triggers. In addition, one day of hands-on work at TRIUMF may be possible. This involves setting up detectors, usually scintillators, electronics, and data acquisition. A simple measurement is usually possible.
Undergraduate Course
Offered even years in the spring Comprehensive overview of nuclear and particle physics with emphasis on concepts: the constituents of matter and the fundamental forces; properties and structure of nuclei and the nucleon; the Standard Model; experimental techniques.
Undergraduate Course
Offered odd years in the spring. Physics of elementary particles. Symmetries, strong interactions, electromagnetic interactions, weak interactions, relativistic quantum mechanics, Feynman diagrams.
Graduate Course
Offered odd years in the spring. Physics of elementary particles. Symmetries, strong interactions, electromagnetic interactions, weak interactions, relativistic quantum mechanics, Feynman diagrams.
Undergraduate Course
Review of nuclear properties and systematics. Properties of the nuclear force; shell model and structure of complex nuclei, nuclear decay via particle emission and spontaneous fission; experimental description of nuclear reactions; nucleon-nucleus and heavy ion reactions.