Particles and nuclei

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This well-known introductory textbook presents nuclear and particle physics from an experimental perspective. The first part, Analysis, focuses on unraveling the substructure of matter, illustrating that experiments aimed at revealing the structures of nuclei and nucleons share a common conceptual foundation. This leads to the understanding that all matter is composed of a limited number of elementary building blocks and fundamental interactions. The second part, Synthesis, explores how these elementary particles combine to form hadrons and nuclei, highlighting that fundamental interactions become less apparent in more complex systems, which are primarily influenced by many-body phenomena. Sections on neutrino oscillations and nuclear matter at high temperatures connect the fields of nuclear and particle physics with modern astrophysics and cosmology. The seventh revised and extended edition introduces new material, including the experimental confirmation of the Higgs particle at the LHC, recent findings in neutrino physics, CP-symmetry violation in neutral B-meson decay, investigations into the nucleon's spin structure, and significant results from HERA experiments in deep-inelastic scattering. The concise text, based on lectures at the University of Heidelberg, features numerous exercises with worked answers and has been translated into several languages, becoming a standard reference for advanced undergraduate and graduate