General Public - Atomic, Nuclear and Hadronic Physics
Atomic physics (or atom physics) is the field of physics that studies atoms as isolated systems composed of electrons and an atomic nucleus. It is primarily concerned with the arrangement of electrons around the nucleus and the processes by which these arrangements change.
Atomic Physics also deals with radiation. In this field, this Atomic Physics is very very related to medicin, since it provides important diagnose and therapy methods.
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Nuclear physics is the branch of physics devoted to the study of the atomic nucleus. It covers three different aspects: probing the fundamental particles (protons and neutrons) and their interactions, classifying and interpreting the properties of nuclei, and providing technological advances. One of the most recent interests in theoretical and experimental Nuclear Physics is the study of Nuclear Structure beyond the stability line.
Another branch of Nuclear Physics is Hypernuclear Physics. A hypernucleus is a bound system of nucleons and one or more hyperons (baryons with strangeness content). Researchers at ICC study the structure, dynamics and the decays of hypenuclei.
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Nuclear Physics is also closely related to Astrophysics, in particular when studing the composition and structure of compact stars. A compact star is formed from the collapsed remnant of a massive star, a Type II, Type Ib, or Type Ic supernova and models predict that it consists mostly of neutrons. It is a very hot star supported by the Pauli exclusion principle repulsion between neutrons. A compact star is one of the few possible conclusions of stellar evolution. The crucial ingredient to undertant its properties is the Nuclear Matter Equation of State.
A field originally developed from Nuclear Physics is hadron physics. Hadron physics concerns the study of particles which interact through the strong force (hadrons). Protons and neutrons, which build the atomic nucleus, are the most familiar examples of hadrons. Hadrons are composed of quarks and gluons.
Under extreme conditions of temperature, hadrons may lose their identity and dissolve in a new state of matter, the so called quark-gluon plasma, similar to the primordial matter in the early Universe. These conditions can be reproduced in heavy ion collision experiments. The experimental results provide circunstancial evidence for a new phase of matter exixting above a temperature of about 170 MeV. In future experiments at CERN-LHC this research program will be continued towards higher temperatures and smaller net baryon densities. Another relativistic heavy ion experiment (FAIR at GSI) will study the hadron mater - quark gluon plasma phase transition in the region of smaller temperature, but high baryon density.
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