Nuclear Matter Theory

Omar Benhar is an INFN research director and teaches Relativistic Quantum Mechanics and Quantum Electrodynamics at the University of Rome, "La Sapienza". He has worked extensively in the United States, and since 2013 has served as an adjunct professor at the Center for Neutrino Physics of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Prof. Benhar has co-authored two textbooks on Relativistic Quantum Mechanics and Gauge Theories, and published more than one hundred scientific papers on the theory of many-particle systems, the structure of compact stars and electroweak interactions of nuclei.Stefano Fantoni has been Professor of Theory of Nuclear Interactions at the International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA), in Trieste, since 1992, and served as Director of the School between 2004 and 2010. He has authored and co-authored over two hundred papers published in international journals. In 2007, Prof. Fantoni has been the recipient of the Eugene Feenberg Memorial Medal for Many-Body Physics. In recognition of his role to improve communication between the scientific community and the general public, in 2009 he has been awarded the UNESCO Kalinga Prize for the popularization of Science.

"Nuclear matter became an important part of the engineering/physics curriculum in the late 20th century with the discovery and first observations of neutron stars. In this volume, Benhar (Sapienza Univ. of Rome) and Fantoni (International School for Advanced Studies, Trieste) focus particularly on nuclear dynamics and nuclear matter properties to explain nuclear matter theory (NMT), which is itself an overlap of nuclear physics and the physics of quantum fluids. Following the introduction of essential concepts, they present corresponding equations through a discussion of analytic methods. Since this is a relatively new field, not much material has been available in the form of textbooks, although numerous research papers appear every year. This volume beautifully provides a concise but extensive account of NMT. Chapters 1 and 2 summarize different non-relativistic nuclear models. Chapters 3 and 4 briefly address nuclear matter properties and different approximation methods, including mean-field, perturbation, and variational. Chapter 5 deals with more advanced variational methods. Finally, chapters 6 and 7 describe the application of such measures to the observation of neutron stars and the constraints obtained by astrophysical data. This book can serve as a good reference text for graduate-level students pursuing research in nuclear physics and related theory. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students and faculty."-M. O. Farooq, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in CHOICE, September 2021 Vol. 59 No. 1

• 1. Introduction. 2. Nuclear Dynamics. 3. Nuclear Matter Properties. 4. Nuclear Matter Theory. 5. Advanced Variational Methods. 6. Neutron Stars. 7. Constraints from Astrophysical Data.