Models of the Atomic Nucleus: Unification Through a Lattice of Nucleons

Eugene Wigner discovered the quantum mechanical "symmetries" of the atomic nucleus in 1937 and won a Nobel Prize in Physics for that work in 1963. He explicitly stated that the mathematical symmetries are those of a face-centered-cubic crystalline lattice, but the 3D spatial structure was largely ignored as theorists developed many varities of the liquid-drop model, the gaseous-phase shell model and the molecule-like alpha cluster model. It turns out that Wigner's fcc lattice unifies the many mutually-contradictory models of nuclear structure theory. Both surprising and delightful, who would have guessed that nuclear properties can be reproduced within a solid-phase lattice? And, best of all, the lattice is held together by a realistic, short-range nucleus force. This book was written to understand the microreality that is the atomic nucleus. This new third edition, written shortly before the author's death in 2019, will guide the research of those who have a desire to understand one of the most complex objects in the material world.